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Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
Afghanistan means something to Islamic fanatics, and in the psychological war we are engaged, is a central battle. Radical Islam believed this nation would be the heaven on earth that would inspire the world to prayer. Iraq as a beacon of liberty is our Christian fanatic equivalent. In an insane world declaring something nonsense is beside the the point. We have real interest in peace for Afghanistan, because of the meaning it has worldwide. When leaving means peace, let's leave. I trust Obama on this. He is our best possible ambassador to the Islamic streets. When he speaks to the world i am proud of this nation, and it's ability to change it's mind, and produce great minds. Bush made me ashamed.— March 22, 2010 1:06 p.m.
San Diego Unified charges all kinds of illegal fees
to 33 Surfpup this was not a liberal state when Rose Bird was tossed. We are now thanks to Republican incompetence. Rose bird was victim of a nasty pogrom that tossed the rest of Jerry Brown's picks as well. The television ad reason was their failure to kill anyone under the Burger court new death penalty rules. The real reason was liberal employment and environmental rulings that had wide influence over the rest of the nation. They were well reasoned.— March 21, 2010 11:45 p.m.
Questions Abound in City's Planned Refunding of Stadium Bonds
Smeared? How do I get smeared? If the mainstream media would simply report that my rock band ruins the morals of teenagers, my music might go somewhere. Unfortunately, the morals of teenagers were already ruined, so it would have to be a smear. As for the Stadium proposal, perhaps the pirates are fighting over the spoils now, and thats why there seems to be a pause. With so much greed, it must be difficult to satisfy everyone. This is only a few billion after all.— March 21, 2010 11:08 p.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
Interesting. Did Iraq intend to peg oil to the euro? The Baathists were very sly sometimes. I wonder what final deal the Iraqis offered before the war? And whether anyone outside of the State Department even looked at it? As for the crowds of fanatics we see on camera lately in Washington. We should remember that the camera loves maniacs, and maniacs love the camera, and that the Republican Party is not drunken, angry rabble. It plays one on TV though. There is a chance, that restored to power, the Republicans wouldn't go to war. We shouldn't bet the country on it.— March 21, 2010 10:51 p.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
Without that oil no war, we agree on this. What puzzles is why no deal was cut to sell that oil for over ten years of sanctions. Saddam was ready to sell. Oil companies were happy to buy the oil for food and smuggled oil, and cheated on the sanctions. I can't believe moral qualms prevented a deal. We bought Iraqi oil during 1988 while they perpetrated their worst atrocities. My theory is that the national frenzy of Saddam bashing prevented our government from supporting the lift of sanctions, our oil companies therefore believed they would be banned from a post sanction Iraq, and supported the war to steal what they couldn't buy. I can't prove this now, but I expect some kiss and tell in the years ahead.— March 20, 2010 11:18 p.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
Everyone lies, but those that believe their own lies are the most dangerous, because the spinning vortex they create, lie upon lie, sucks us into fanaticism and war. We first came to hate Saddam Hussein because he threatened our greed for oil. That hatred destroyed our reason, and we started a war with overwhelming force, only to be defeated. The greatest army, without reason, is defenseless. We have a reasonable need for a steady supply of oil, that need caused the world to ally against Iraq in the first war. The thrill of that first war, and Republican humiliation from the 1992 defeat led us to the second. They remembered Bush Sr.'s great poll numbers during the war and their crash afterward, and decided that the war ended too soon. They decided to repeat exactly what they did, even to anointing a younger Bush, only this time the war would never end, and they hoped the support would never fade. This power grabbing scheme was undone by incompetence, Others have tried it, others will try it.— March 20, 2010 12:20 p.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
to 41 Greed for oil caused the first Iraq war, Thatcher and Saddam agreed on this, but the second war was mostly anger and the hurt pride of the defeated, not cynicism, but fanaticism. The disaster started with the vilification of Saddam Hussein in the first war, and Bill Clinton's continuation after, or perhaps earlier with the vilification of Hitler in the Second World War. A great villain helps unsophisticated soldiers fight, and perhaps is a useful weapon of war, because it focuses anger, not on the enemy country and it's people, but on the leadership. The reconstruction of Germany was made more merciful by the belief that the German people were slaves of an evil leadership. But nations make leaders, leaders don't make nations. Roosevelt and Clinton, and George Bush Senior, knew this, and used Saddam and Hitler to induce anger, but were not personally more angry than the nation they led, they fought nations, not leaders. The problem with the good lie that Roosevelt encouraged, that nations are mere slaves of their leader, is that confused leaders might come to believe also, and jump to the head of the angry mob desiring war. With this confused mindset, they might believe that they actually led the nation to war, instead of realizing that they were chosen by an angry mob, to do angry things. The Big Lie, that Saddam Hussein personally caused the problems in the Middle East, was article of faith for the Republicans, and widely believed. When the Republicans lost in 1992, and Saddam survived, hurt pride stoked the national anger. The talk radio said the war ended too soon, because we failed to kill him. I used to call this thinking "ding dong diplomacy", the belief that if you poured water on the Wicked Witch of the Middle East, she would melt away, and her minions would arise and sing our praises. They were true believers in this, as was proven by their haphazard and bizarre war strategy. They failed to force the surrender of the Iraqi army, they failed to secure the Iraqi weapon dumps Instead they concentrated on the purely political aims of finding WMDs and most importantly finding Saddam, Because they wasted so much effort and prestige in this useless pursuit, I credit them with true belief. Anger destroyed their reason, so they acted stupidly. I hope there is no criminal trial of George W. Bush, because I think my Democratic Party can slide into fanatical hatred, and this would distract from the task at hand, fixing the nation that made him.— March 19, 2010 4:51 p.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
to 22 The local fanatics who fight for the Mt. Soledad Cross argue that this Cross is not an endorsement of religion in court, and that the US was always a Christian nation on the steps outside. The shout of conflicting beliefs identifies fanaticism for thinking people. The court packers intend to replace thought with doublethink, and the rule of law with mob rule. The churl talks of Jesus, while the vile person grabs the money and land through favorable employment and property rulings that fly in reason's face. We will fight this battle to the end of days. In fairness to the casual bigots that enforced the segregation of San Diego and erected the Cross, they defended segregation as law and order, and would be shocked by the hysterical Tea Party mob, as they were when the same strident fanatics ruled the streets in their hippy days. The cities champion was Richard Nixon, who was shockingly immoral, but no fool, and in the end initiated a reasonable end to the cold war, and signed important civil rights legislation that today's fanatics wish to overturn, when they fight for the Soledad Cross.— March 18, 2010 1:22 p.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
The oil argument was trotted out by Cheney, in the run up to war. He claimed that Iraqi oil would pay for the cost of the invasion. This blatant appeal to old time imperialist resource grabbing persuaded few, and alarmed many, so most of the war hucksters focused on WMD, and tried to link Saddam Hussein with the Islamic fanatics of 9-11. Imperialist resource grabbing, made more sense than those other absurd arguments, so many on the left feel it was the real reason for the war. But these were all mere excuses, designed to cover a more shocking truth. The war was prosecuted by fanatics at war with reason itself. Denial of evolution is their rallying cry. The hysterical elected the unthinking Bush, the hysterical hated Saddam Hussein, their mass hysteria caused the war. George W. Bush has one talent, he persuades the insane. Thinking people need this skill to stop the next war.— March 18, 2010 3:05 a.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
to 26 I blame our six and a half day worship of greed, pride and anger for the war, not our Sunday breaks from the TV and Game Boy. This secular nation strikes the religious pose to mask our money grabbing, and justify our anger. The angry fanatics that have packed our courts talk hypocritical morals in their opposition to abortion and gay access to family courts, but the financial backing comes from, and practical results go to, businesses that want their lawyer's tricks upheld. As for WMDs, the farmer's daughter can't claim the traveling salesman raped her by deception when she was so willing and ready to be deceived. The war was perpetrated on two assertions, that Iraq's military was a danger to the whole world, even our well defended nation, and that the war would be quick and easy. Both assertions could not be true, as it turned out, both were false. Such transparent lies could only deceive the willing. The nation wanted to believe that our anger and pride could be satiated with a quick little war against a national villain, Saddam Hussein, and we got a bloody nose, Now we want to blame the snake oil salesmen who talked us into it. Regardless of blame, the nation has the responsibility to deal with the ugly babies these salesmen left behind, the wars and recession. Now the farmer's daughter nation opens the door to new salesmen pitching a baby beautiful procedure identical to that which made the babies. Perhaps we like getting screwed.— March 17, 2010 1:36 p.m.