Any chance of interviewing Andy Worthington? He's been on participation sessions on FDL, and he would really do a bang up interview, I would think.

o goodie! My three frens r all hear togather.

i wan luv all u, hero, christopher sinyard and london laddie. u peoples make my ankals week and my breath short u no. ever sinse zoltun lef me at teh altar, i ben look 4 new luvor and u 3 will be grate if u all work togather sinse none of u can do me gud alone.

matr of fac, it seam like u cant do anythang alone. u all seam to come out woodwork an gang up on whoever but moistly oomex and ondalatte who frum wat i can sea do no deserve it.

u guys are gutless and i like that in a boy but not a man. if u gro balls u can have me and see if u can handle a reel wimin.

in meentime u shud stfu.

specially u bucky. u got money nuf to sport me?

The thing about fear is that courage is not its absence. If you are truly unafraid it takes no exercise of courage to act, or stand. Courage is to do what you know is right irrespective of your fear.

The coward is not one who is afraid, but one whose fear rules them.

For example, people who compromise on their principles and then try to claim that realpolitik made them do it.

Yeah ... right.

Many here have observed that the neocon cabal that ran the USA and its imperial possessions for 8 years were/are the most terrified bunch of wimps to ever strut a carrier deck. But not many have taken the opportunity to admit to their own fears, apparently preferring to pretend not to have any.

I have no problem admitting that I fear for the future of freedom and the widespread prosperity that accompanies it, on this planet.

I have no problem admitting that I fear for my country of origin, and my country of residence, and many others, should my prognistications turn out to be only half correct.

I have no problem admitting that I fear for my family, similarly.

I have no problem admitting that I fear for myself, also, under such circumstances.

I have no doubt that the people who willingly torture, maim, and kill "suspects" would not hesitate to do the same to me if the occasion arose.

But I have big problems with people who simultaneously claim to have some courage of their convictions while advocating the compromise of the same, and additionally slandering everyone who disagrees with them with the label of coward.

But I have noticed that self-styled serious people have a problem with irony, its recognition, and implications.

Do they have a Latin name for this sort of foolishness? Why yes they do. Look it up.

Say, how many South Korean Weddings have been bombed in the last few years? How many South Koreans have been shot? How many displaced? How many tortured? You get the picture.

Not only that, but the South Korean government is not a total puppet of the USA.

However, it is high time we got out of Korea. We could feed all the hungry in Florida (and many more) for the annual amount we spend in that place on the other side of the globe. Show me in the Constitution were the government can steal money from the poor to play Empire on the other side of the world.

Not willingly, no.

Would you have rather died of smallpox? Because without the vaccine that's what would have happened to a great many people, perhaps yourself, but surely someone you loved at the very least. Worldwide epidemics do not discriminate.

I was in favor of keeping the Articles of Confederation, and so did not vote in protest. No one noticed. :-(

As verses what? I am certainly not afraid of that door we all pass through, looking forward to it in many ways. What freedoms do I give up so that you can take what little money I have and spend it on war and medicine? (odd combo, don't ya think?)

If the government had stayed out of medicine entirely from the beginning of the country, we would have still had smallpox vaccinations. Or, do you argue that only government approved medicine can be effective. If so, why?

No. That would be you trying to put words in my mouth that didn't come from me and then arguing against them.

I actually think we'd be much better off if we could work interactively with other countries like China. I've experienced accupuncture and I believe in it.

What you can not seem to see is that there are always trade offs, and so it may well be that taking money from the poor to fund everyones pet project may well be more harmful than you can see.

Oh, I understand about tradeoffs just fine. Do you have any idea of the number of patients who are destitute that we have worked with to provide care and medicines for? Do you have any idea what those poor folks would have gotten without our help? No you don't. But I've talked to them and seen them and worked with them.

Oh, and that last paragraph is referring to the destitute here in Ohio, not in Africa. Maybe I could get one to tell you what s/he thinks about tradeoffs that involve throwing away their lives so you can keep a few tax dollars.

Now it is time for more obfuscation about our not-occupations.

Isn't it funny how none of this push back and hair splitting bullshit existed from the same people on UT until Obama announced his Ir-Af-Pak adventure?

Not a even a damn mousefart from them when someone referred to either country as occupied before Jan 20th, but ever since it has been a steady stream of the same excuses and apologies and appeal to authority bullshit that didn't exist from the same people last year.