Heh..

The NYT board sounds like usenet political newsgroups, where I cut my rhetorical teeth.

You're right, it's quite tame here.

They denied us the hajj seems the more relevant Herbert in these threads, though, doncha think?

We can but wish.

Ctheney as the Baron (although I dishonor the Baron with the comparison) and the current resident as Rabban.

Obama as Feyd?

The spice must flow, eh?

And yet it was only ONE speedboat that killed scores of sailors on the USS Cole.

As someone has already pointed out upthread, a speedboat packed with thousands of pounds of explosives does not maneuver well, unlike the speedboats in this incident.

A real squid would know this and realize the boats were not encumbered by large quantities of explosives.

Get on the internet and bitch about U.S. naval ships in the region protecting the flow of oil?

You and I and everyone else here know that is not what is really going on.

This is all about American hegemony and provoking a war with Iran, protecting the flow of oil wouldn't take anything like the number of naval vessels we have in the Persian Gulf.

When the only tool you know how to use is a hammer, the entire world looks like a nail. Our hammer is a military that costs more than the rest of the world spends in total.

When you spend that kind of money on a single tool you're going to use it whether it is the right one for the job or not.

Did you forget that we are dealing with religious fundamentalists, who are not rational actors?

No, I didn't forget that Bush and most of his minions are religious fundamentalists who are not rational actors.

Just the fact that in the Republican party evolution is a subject for debate should let you know just how out of touch with reality a great many Republicans are.

Where do you stand on evolution, Shooter?

Republicans create their own reality and then act surprised when others do not buy into it.

And I'm sure that secretly the Democrats actually want all black men locked behind bars which is the main goal of the War on Drugs after all.

So, in your view what then is the main goal of the drug war?

The satisfy the majority of Americans who think it's a good idea for whatever reason, obviously.

There is a difference between deliberate obtuseness and finding out exactly where someone stands on an issue.

Two more questions for you.

Why do you suppose the nineteenth amendment, prohibiting the manufacture or sales of alcohol, and the twenty first amendment, repealing the nineteenth, were only thirteen years apart?

Keep in mind that passing an amendment to the Constitution is a remarkably difficult thing to do.

And the second question, when was the last time you saw a shootout between alcohol distributors or retailers?

Many people prayed for inner peace. One morning, after having read about the hole in the ozone layer, I prayed for the world. After class, someone angrily said to me, “Why are you bringing the world into the room?” I was baffled and told her that, as I saw it, the world was already in the room, and the room was in the world.

One of the things I was taught as a child is that is a bit gauche to pray much for oneself. I've been in a few prayer sessions with people where they pray for all sorts of things for themselves.. That they pass the test tomorrow, that they get the raise or promotion they want and so on.

It's like the phrase "God bless America", it's not a prayer or a request, it's a freakin' order. The sheer hubris in that phrase is incredible.

Hubris, they name is America.

Iowa caucus goers stood by Barack, in part, because when voting with their bodies, in front of their neighbors, Iowans are held accountable. In the quiet, solitary space of the voting booth, some New Hampshire voters abandoned Barack."

In the privacy of the voting booth the bigotry comes forth.

I'm of the age and race where everyone automatically assumes I'm bigoted, I hear lots of stuff that turns my stomach.

Obama will never be president, the bigotry is too strong yet.

I'm frankly tired of hearing about the tears, boring story.

Mrs Bill is tacking to the left now, in the primaries.. She will move hard right as soon as the nomination is in the bag.

Keep in mind that Mr Hil has been often described as the best Republican president since Eisenhower. Mr Hil also gutted welfare , signed NAFTA (negotiated by Bush 41) and greatly expanded the drug war. Hardly the acts of a liberal.

Mrs Bill voted for the Iraq war and has refused to state that was a mistake. She has also voted to enable the Ctheney administration to further pursue war with Iran.

If either Mrs Bill or Obama gets the nomination, the Republicans have an excellent chance of keeping the presidency. Mrs Bill because absolutely no one will bring out the knuckledraggers in force like she will and Obama because in the privacy of the voting booth Americans will allow their bigotry to shine through.

Have both become well nigh impossible to do in this age.

I lost all respect for McCain after he hugged Ctheney's sock puppet. Any man who will let his family be savaged the way McCain's was in SC and then hug the source of the savaging has not a shred of real honor.

It makes me truly sad, though I disagreed with McCain I at one one time respected him as a man of honor.

And I predict that Timmeh will ask very few to no softball questions.