COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, September 07, 2007

"We all have it commin kid."



Hands down, (as opposed to hands up?), a favorite Western must have either Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. For me it is Clint Eastwood in "Unforgiven." It just does not get much better than that.
...Believing that he is the next target, Beauchamp heads for the front door. The Sheriff picks up his pistol and loudly cocks it. Will steps on his gun arm, causing the gun to discharge. Entirely at Will's mercy, Little Bill pleads and laments that he won't live long enough to enjoy his dream house in old age:

Little Bill: I don't deserve this. To die like this. I was building a house.
Will: Deserve's got nothin' to do with it.
Little Bill: I'll see you in hell, William Munny.
Will: Yeah.

After an extended pause with the gun barrel floating above Little Bill's head, Munny blasts him - unforgiven. Striding out of the saloon, he shoots a moaning and wounded Clyde, and then crouches down and yells a further warning to anyone on the street who dares to shoot at him as he leaves town: "Any son-of-a-bitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, I'm gonna kill his wife and all his friends and burn his damn house down. Nobody better shoot." As he rides from town, he commands further frontier justice for the prostitutes:


You better bury Ned right. You better not cut up nor otherwise harm no whores, or I'll come back and kill every one of you sons of bitches."


Make your choice or get out of Dodge.

In the Ol’ West, a Very Tough Commute


By A. O. SCOTT NY Times

Published: September 7, 2007
Russell Crowe, who wears the black hat in “3:10 to Yuma,” is a native of New Zealand. Christian Bale, the good guy, was born in Wales. Lou Dobbs and other commentators who have lately been sounding the alarm about outsourcing, immigration and the globalization of the labor market may want to take note. The hero and the villain in a cowboy movie: are we going to stand by and let foreigners steal these jobs? Are no Americans willing to do them?

Of course the western is a universal genre — one of the best recent examples, “The Proposition,” comes from Australia — and it must be said that Mr. Crowe and Mr. Bale both do excellent work. They and a fine, all-American supporting cast, including Gretchen Mol, Ben Foster, Dallas Roberts and a surpassingly grizzled Peter Fonda, are the main reasons to see “3:10 to Yuma,” a serviceable addition to the current western revival.

Directed by James Mangold from a script by Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, “3:10 to Yuma” remakes a 1957 film of the same title (based on the same Elmore Leonard story), which starred Glenn Ford as the charming baddie and Van Heflin as the rancher who risks everything to escort him to a rendezvous with justice.

The original, directed by Delmer Daves, is a lean and satisfying specimen, a western more concerned with the psychology of its characters than with the mythology of the frontier. Mr. Mangold’s new version, though it expands the story and cranks up the brutality, does its best to honor the unpretentious spirit of the original.

If it is a lesser movie — more likely to be recalled as a moderately satisfying entertainment than remembered as a classic — that may be a sign of the times. The best of the old westerns were dense with psychosexual implication and political subtext. Often dismissed, then and now, as naïve celebrations of dubious ideals, they were in many ways more sophisticated than their self-consciously critical (or “revisionist”) heirs. And the new “3:10 to Yuma,” even in its efforts to stick to the old ways (apart from some obligatory post-“Deadwood” cussing), is neither spare nor suggestive enough. It lacks the confidence to distinguish between touchstones and clichés...

3:10 TO YUMA


119 comments:

  1. I agree, "Unforgiven" may be the best western ever.

    Another one, that gets the ravs and I have never seen in its entirety is the one with the illiterate cowboy played by Charlton Heston...oh what's the name?...come on memory...Not the Outlaw Josie Wales...um...Will Monday? Somebody help me out here!

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  2. Got it! Will Penny.

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  3. are we going to stand by and let foreigners steal these jobs?
    ---
    Scott misses the obvious, as expected:
    The Aussies have their own Western tradition, and our wide-open Wild West was but a postage stamp compared to the Nullarbor Plain.
    Clint, like the rest of us, has been humbled by age into less heroic projects like a new restaurant in Wailea in partnership with the wildly successful founder of "Maui Tacos"

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  4. You are going to be unforgiven if you don't stop writing that trilogy and put up a post!

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  5. Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
    This is the best known screen version, starring Robert Donat,
    This is the best known screen version, starring Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills and Paul Henreid. Donat won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the lead role.
    Peter O'Toole was later nominated in the same movie, starring with Petula Clarke, who also got high marks.
    ---
    Miller brought up Donat re:
    beating out this lowly group of bottom-dwellers for the Oscar that year:
    1939
    Clark Gable - Gone with the Wind as "Rhett Butler"
    Laurence Olivier - Wuthering Heights as "Heathcliff"
    Mickey Rooney - Babes in Arms as "Mickey Moran"
    James Stewart - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as "Jefferson Smith"
    ---
    During an air attack by a German Zeppelin, Chips insists that the boys keep on construing their Latin--choosing the story of Julius Caesar's battles against Germanic tribes, which describes the latter's belligerent nature, much to the amusement of his students.
    As the Great War drags on, Chips reads aloud into the school's Roll of Honour every Sunday the names of the many former students and teachers who have died in battle.

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  6. Sonia and I sail on the Trilogy when she comes to visit.
    A nice large trimaran for a quick sail to a Luau on Lanai, or a leisurely evening "Whale Watch" off Olowalu.
    When there aren't any whales we pass the time...
    well, this is a family/library friendly blog, now, isn't it?

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  7. Oscar History: Winning Age of the Best Actors
    ---
    This is the third in a series of five articles about the impact of age on winning the Oscar.
    The first two pieces dealt with the winning ages of the Best Actresses and Directors.
    ---
    Next to Fonda, four actors were in their 60s, two of whom major box-office stars:
    John Wayne was 62 in 1969, when he won the Best Actor for "True Grit" it was his second nomination, the first was in 1949 for "Sands of Iwo Jima."

    Newman was 61 when he finally won the lead Oscar for Scorsese's "The Color of Money," in 1986, a sequel to the far superior,
    "The Hustler," for which Newman was nominated in 1961.

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  8. This is the one I remember Best, that, and
    "The Three Amigos"
    Sometimes Sonia gets dolled up like this, and we do this or that, busying ourselves as the sexual tension builds.
    All in the name of recalling Missionary Times in Hawaii, you understand.
    Well, the position, at least.

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  9. Just remembered Trish's comment to Sonia:
    "Put some clothes on, Girl!"
    LOL

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  10. "Kane and his wife leave town; however, Kane has a crisis of conscience and turns back.

    He reclaims his badge and tries to swear in deputies to back him up against Miller and his three gang members, but as time goes on, it becomes clear that no one is willing to get involved.

    Many want Kane to go away, hoping that with him gone, the Miller gang will not cause any trouble.
    "
    ---
    Same old same old, like State, the Left, and the CIA!

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  12. The FOX folk are hyping the release of Osama's new video with more promos than 3:10 ti Yuma has paid commercuals and cameos by Peter Fonda flogging the movie.

    What's up with that?
    Building anticipation for Osama's big announcement. Maybe he should have just booked five minutes on Leno.

    The Chinaman, Mr Hsu, was busted by the FBI, on the train to Yuma, but not the 3:10. The corruption runs deep there with those Federals, once the Warrant was issued and it became a Federal issue, involving inter-State flight.

    Any bets that it was the local Sheriff that called the Feds in, or did the FBI jump on it themselves. Mr Mueller leading a top down project or the system working, bottom up?

    At the BC, it'll be played as a breakdown of the Chinese spy handlers, here in the US, they've slipped up. Or perhaps just a double blind plot to reinsert him into the process, saving the Clintons further scrutiny.

    Like it was 1999.

    Still cannot fathom the connection between those loose nukes transiting the US, on the wings of angels, and Osama's new video, but I'm sure it has to do with Mr Hsu.

    On the train to Yuma, only in the Americas.

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  13. Either Osama dyes his beard, or he's getting younger.

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  14. Seems Mr Hsu took sick, while on that train, was transported to the local hospital, where he was busted.

    Shades of Alexander Litvinenko and thallium poisoning, or did he brush his teeth with toothpaste that escaped the dumpster, after recall?

    Any odds of his living for over a month?

    We'll be back to the stories of people close to the Clintons, dying of embaressment.

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  15. The waters of Pakistan, they are rejuvenating, a regular fountain of youth, just like Fort Lauderdale

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  16. Maybe Mr Hsu was on his way to the airport, in Mena Arkansas.
    Maybe not.

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  18. The commander of the Brits in Basra denies that his troops were beaten or have retreated.

    Echoing General Simmons.
    All part of the planned turnover of Iraq, to the Iraqi. A symptom of success, just not well managed from a PR/Propaganda prospective. The Coalition losing the information war at home and abroad, still, after all these years.

    He does claim to be fighting proxies in a war against Iran.

    Also says that with their departure from the Palace, Basra is seeing a "lull' in the fighting.

    Seems the natives were targeting the foreign occupation. Now that the occupiers have left, the fighting has ceased, not increased.
    The LtCol calls it a lull, but perhaps it is the beginnings of a long Peace.

    In either case, another indication that the Iraqi can govern themselves, at least a peacefully as the Coalition can, if not more so.

    It's Iran we're fighting, says Basra commander.

    But we keep funding those Iranian construction projects, through US proxies.
    No unity of purpose, no central goal, no strategic vison.

    No War, at all.
    Soft or Hard
    Long or Short

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  19. The best Westerns were made by the Italians. The best of the Italian Westerns being one made by Luchino Visconti: Il Gattopardo, staring, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Burt Lancaster.

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  20. DR

    does Mena have an airport? Dont remember seeing one....

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  21. Favorite Western, at my house,
    The Professionals.

    Directed by Richard Brooks, starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Jack Palance, Ralph Bellamy and Claudia Cardinale ...

    The best line of the film, delivered by Lancaster while watching "Los Colorados" execute a band of revolutionay bandidtos, a line that is as appropriate to Iraq as much as it was to Mexico, or Vietnam.
    Almost anywhere outsiders get involved in local blood feuds

    "Maybe it's all one revolution. The good guys against the bad guys. The problem is -- who are the good guys?"

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  22. Haven’t seen that one, dRat. Will definitely check it out. Thanks.

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  23. ...who are the good guys?"

    Why the ones wearing the white hats, of course.

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  24. No white hats in
    The Professionals, ash.

    None amongst the Iraqi natives, either.

    Mr Diem wore one, before he didn't

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  25. Don't for forget Katherine Wiley.

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  26. “None amongst the Iraqi natives, either.”


    You know I will dispute that.

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  27. I always picture Marvin first in a Sub!

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  28. Had to have a corderoy sport coat like him in College, esp after my friend w/the 327 injected Healy got one!
    12 sec quarters in 1964!

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  29. 'Cat Ballou'--I know, but she wasn't Hanoi Jane then, the unforgiveable came later.

    Teresita's back. Great!

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  30. Your Kurds are wearing Silver Belly Hats, at best, mat.

    Certainly not white ones.

    And what with the dust licked up by the PKK, it's hard to even see the silver

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  31. He became a Swift Boater.
    Haven't heard since, unfortunately.

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  32. Especially if one goes to Kirkurk, where the oil has turned everyones hat black.

    Greed and time in the saddle.
    Right of return, rightous morality for the Kurds but not Palistines.

    Tough sell as to the moral rightousness of that distinction

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  33. Corrupt Police

    In our Westerns, at least usually the bad guys haven't infiltrated the police, though the Sheriff may well be lacking in 'spine'.

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  35. dRat,

    I don’t consider the Turks or the Iranians as being good guys. The Kurds, they have my 6 pointed silver badge. The PKK can wear whatever color hat they damn choose as far as I’m concerned.

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  36. And who can forget the immortal line, "Assault with a friendly weapon."?

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  37. 'Nite, Doug.

    Don't forget to strike a pose for old Tes.

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  38. Will wonders never cease? In Georgia you actually have to show that you are really a voter, to vote.

    The two main political parties seemed to take diametrically opposed views of this issue.

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  39. The wife says, 'Pale Rider' or 'Tombstone'.

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  40. dRat,

    Kurds are native. 5000 plus years to back it up. Same for their Jewish cousins. Not the same for Pali economic migrants. Right Of Return for Pali economic migrants would be to Egypt Sudan Turkey Syria etc.

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  41. Sorry folks,
    I'm baaack,
    for a sec:
    Hsu's been arrested twice before and they never took his passport!

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  42. We used to be the Natives:
    Meanest MF'rs feared no evil, no matter what the Valley.

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  43. Wife also says "'Hud'--even though it's not really a western, it's got cows in it." Also 'The Misfits'--'Geronimo'.

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  44. Doug,

    They tried really hard, but Hsu couldn't find it.

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  45. Remember Davey Crockett!
    (the rocket)

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  46. (I think I left it at the Postman's House!)
    Mr Poo, or who ever he was in S SF.

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  47. Exactly, mat, you want to pick and choose from members of the posse.
    While the US is allied with the Turks, signed Treaties of mutual defense
    Negotiated in good faith.
    Applicable to US and them.

    So, for you, the distinction is clear. As for the perseption of others, it's further removed.

    The one voice that Mr Hucjabbe described in the debate, that says everyone's wearing grey

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  48. I don’t care what relations the US or Israel have with the Turks. I’m telling you that as far as I’m concerned, the Turks are not the good guys. In fact, to my eyes, the situation with the Turks is very much analogous to that of our relations with Pakistan.

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  49. "jabbe"
    You don't have Cerebral Palsy, do you, 'Rat?
    Just Curious.

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  50. You got Armenian blood in you, Mat?
    Turks don't do it for me, neither.

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  51. Hey!
    I said,
    "nite"
    right after I said
    "here we go again"
    WTF?

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  52. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  53. Doug,

    I redeposited my contribution. You think Tes would mind?

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  54. Doug,

    I don't think so. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Armenians have some of my blood.

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  55. Dammit, Mat, my feeble mind can't figure out "Tes!"
    Sorry,
    Be kind to the infirm!

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  56. No good guys, just better and worse.

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  57. No, doug, I've got wide finger tips and no spell check on blogger.

    Mat sees in black and white. Which is fine with me, but the US sees in shades of grey.

    We speak with one voice, if a believer in Mr Huckabee's version of GOP philosophy, which I am.

    Friends come and friends go, the USA is eternal. As allen thought of the Marines, I extend it to the nation.

    If we decide to dump on Diem, well that is what the United States did.
    The Shah or the Kurds, the Turks or the Greeks. through thick or thin, none matter, but for US.


    As Mr Lewis said, he spoke the truth. We are a fickle crowd, shifting in the wind.

    The white hats in the room, they're always on US.
    But when viewed from afar, even our friends see US wearing grey.

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  58. Did the Turks invent "Taquia"

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  59. Best Cowboy movie ever? "The Rounders" Glenn Ford

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  60. My favorite lines in "The Unforgiven" are:

    Little Bill: "you just shot an unarmed man."

    William Muney: "Well, he shoulda been armed!"

    A word to the wise....

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  61. Best 'D' rated movie ever made in Idaho--Breakheart Pass Staring Charlie Bronson. Another good Idaho film--'Spud'.

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  62. 9-11 Pic

    America’s Mayor Goes to America

    Rudy Giuliani has staked his campaign on the idea that he will keep America safe from terror the same way he kept New York City safe from crime — with ruthless efficiency.
    Times Topics: Rudolph Giuliani

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  63. 'Breakheart Pass' broke their hearts at the box office. 'Spud' is only available to certain select highly vetted upper class clientele.

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  64. Here is one for US.
    Since Iranian assets may be siezed, the complaintents should be able to have the World Bank funding due to be delievered to Iran for 2008, 2009 & 2010 diverted to their accounts and the Iranians should remain liable for the repayment of principle and interest, to the World Bank.

    WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, a federal judge declared Friday in a ruling that left survivors and families shedding tears of joy.

    U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth described his ruling as the largest-ever such judgment by an American court against another country. "These individuals, whose hearts and souls were forever broken, waited patiently for nearly a quarter century for justice to be done," he said.

    Iran has been blamed for supporting the militant group Hezbollah, which carried out the suicide bombing in Beirut. It was the worst terrorist act against U.S. targets until the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

    Hundreds of people crowded into a federal courtroom to hear Friday's ruling. Parents have grown old since their children were killed. Siblings have grown into middle-age. Children have married and started families of their own.

    Weeping spectators stood and erupted in applause and hugs as Lamberth left the bench.

    The ruling allows nearly 1,000 family members and a handful of survivors to try to collect Iranian assets from various sources around the world. Finding and seizing that money will be difficult, however, and the families are backing a law in Congress that would make it easier for terrorism victims and their families to do so.


    That would get $750 million or so into the complaintents hands. If the World Bank were to refuse, well, they'd be in violation of the US Law, which is soveriegn in their Headquarters country, the US wouldn't allow that, should we.

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  66. ahhh, the loooong arm of US domestic law reaching around the world exacting its toll. And then we get the hooowwwls of outrage if some court outside the US dares to try the same thing. Can you imagine the staggering sums of money some could claim is due because of US military actions?

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  67. But that is not the point, ash.

    Foreign courts tend to focus on individual US players, indicting Mr Kissinger, Mr Rumsfeld and the like.

    The Venezuelan and Cuban Courts already have siezed US property, over the past decades. So that idea of yours is well trod.

    But now, any payments originating in the US, the World Bank Headquarters, can be legally siezed. Just as the US assets in Cuba were legally siezed, according to Cuban law.

    Perhaps an Iraqi Court will find US liable for damages, and attempt to sieze US property in recompense. Perhaps a Court in Chile will give it a go.

    Doubt any UN sponsored Court would threaten it's own funding with such a finding.
    Historicly speaking, while I was in Germany we did have officers following the maneuver units around with check books, paying the population for damages created during the war games.

    So the US has, in the past, taken financial responsibility for its' behaviour, in foreign lands.

    The US, in Iraq, paying out various sums of cash for damages done. As exemplified by the reports out of Haditha of payments made following that Marine unit being ambushed.

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  68. The Marshall Plan allivating US financial obligations in Europe, post WWII.

    Remember that little book and then the movie,
    The Mouse that Roared

    The entire point of which, losing a war to the US was better, financially, for the loser than winning it could ever be.

    Ask the folks in Somalia, the little people, when they were better off?
    Or Indonesia, post that Christmas Tsunami.

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  69. In Iraq, the US has dispersed nearly $20 Billion USD in reconstruction funding, through 22Feb06.

    In April of 2007 the ACLU and the NYTimes reported that the US had paid out ove $32 million dollars in compensation for damages to iraqi civilians.
    Compensation for non-combat cases are governed by the foreign claims act, in which the army can offer condolence compensation as a gesture of regret with no admission of fault.
    ...
    According to the New York Times, the US has paid out more than $32m in compensation for civilian deaths, injuries and property damage.

    “As these files remind us, war imposes heavy burdens on innocent civilians,” said Jameel Jaffer, the deputy director of the ACLU’s national security programme. “Although these files are deeply disturbing to read, they allow us to understand the human cost of war in a way that statistics and the usual platitudes do not.”


    The US does not shirk its' responsibilities to compensate the victims of war.

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  70. Timeline of Iraq Foreign Assistance Availability
    In CY 2003 - CY 2004: $2.8B IRRF
    In CY 2003 - CY 2006: $18.4B IRRF
    In CY 2006 - CY 2007: $1.610B FY06 Supplemental
    In CY 2007 - CY 2008: $771M FY07 Budget

    $2.381B IN FY 2006 SUPPLEMENTAL AND FY 2007 FOREIGN ASSISTANCE REQUESTS

    In addition to conventional foreign assistance and post conflict programs funded under the IRRF, critical activities that support the counterinsurgency efforts and transition to Iraq’s self-reliance will need funding through 2006 and 2007. This foreign assistance funding complements the funds DoD is seeking in its FY 2006 Supplemental.2 With the exception of prison construction, no other request is being made for large construction projects.

    The $1.610B FY 2006 Supplemental funds emergency programs Support the COIN Campaign. Spending these monies is timed to begin in June, as IRRF funding becomes exhausted, and may carry us through the first six months of FY 2007.
    The FY 2007 budget of $771M funds other high-priority foreign assistance programs to sustain the transition to Iraqi self-reliance for the remainder of FY 2007.

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  71. Your goose and gander comparison,
    ash, falls short of the reealities of US actions around the world.

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  72. Hillary praises Hsu's magnificent donations to charity. Scrappleface :)

    Osama bin Laden in his latest tape seems to be something of a Chomskyist supply sider, as near as I can tell.

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  74. Heard he frets for those caught in the subprime credit squeeze.

    I do not think old Osama ever made it to Iraq, post invasion, such a shame.

    Living in the mountains of Pakistan, it may not be an opulent life, but it is living none the less.

    From Wanted - Dead or Alive
    to, He doesn't really matter.

    When all along, he's been the figurehead of the radical mussulmen, an Icon of reactionaries.

    Something Saddam never was, nor would have been. He being a tinpot dictator in a sandbox.

    While Osama has achieved mythic status, like Zapata and Che. More so perhaps than those Latins revolutionaries ever did.

    Those that rouse the ideals of revolution or reaction, those that really changed perceptions of history, not being bound to a single Country, but becoming a face on a T-shirt.
    Worn by millions

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  75. Good ol' Judge Royce C. Lamberth:
    Our friend here will probably never see the money, but at least it's nice to see.

    Now, if we could please wipe out the folks that helped the 19 kill his brother...
    But, of course, such sentiments are coarse and crude, and have no place in the lives of lifers in govt, most esp the State Dept, where cooler, more sophisticated and intelligent minds prevail.
    ...and prevail, and prevail, and prevail...

    No vested interests or anti-American sentiments, of course.

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  76. Not to mention the Boners born and bred to "lead."

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  77. HIGH COURT OVERTURNS MURDER CONVICTION

    Olympia, Washington AP--The state
    Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction of a transient accused of stabbing a man to death in Seattle's Pioneer Square.

    In a unanimous ruling, the court ruled the state violated Darrell Everybodytalksabout's right to an attorney when he was questioned by an officer during a presentencing inerview in 1997.

    The officer, Diane Navicky, used the incriminating statements he made during that interview at a later trial on the case.

    "She did not contact Everybodytalksabout's attorney before conducting the interview, nor did she know if Everybodytalksabout had advance notification of the date of the interview," said the ruling written by Justice Mary E. Fairhurst. The court ordered a new trial fore Everybodytalksabout that will not include the statements from that interview.

    This would be the fourth trial for Everybodytalksabout. Two previous convictions were also overturned.

    He is accused of killing 23 year old Rigel Jones of Kirkland in February 1996 during a robbery.

    Another man convicted of the stabbing, Phillip Lopez, was sentenced to 37 years.

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  78. COUPLE PLEAD INNOCENT IN DOGFIGHTING CASE

    Malad, Idaho--AP

    An eastern Idaho couple arrested last week during a police raid on their home near Malad have pleaded innocent to dogfighting charges.

    ....

    The Willards were arrested last week after police investigating illegal drugs raided their home.

    ...after finding drugs, the police also discovered 30 pit bull terriers, blood evidence and other equipment believed used in dog fighting....

    The dogs disappeared hours after the raid, and Oneida County Sheriff Jeff Semrad has explained that someone watching the property removed the dogs aftger a deputy posted at the home was called away to handle an emergency.

    The Humane Society is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to recovery of the dogs.

    xxxxxx

    And I thought we had no dog fighting in Idaho. Perps names are Andy and Tiffany Willard. Don't sound like immigrants, but locals.

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  79. There seems to ba a sizable dog fighting underground, at least a dog fighting wannabe culture.

    Saw an incident where a pit bull mauled a child to death, in the home where the children and dogs all ran free.

    Dog had a history of previously biting people, the dead child included.
    The father to be charged with 2nd degree manslaughter, a no prison term offense, if convicted.

    The dog, I assume, destroyed.
    Poor dog, poor kid.

    Feel sympathy for the parents, as well. Animals are quite dangerous, really are.
    Like a loaded weapon, with the trigger in the hands of a retarded child.

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  80. So, I suppose a non-retarded child with a loaded weapon is just fine, 'Rat?

    Or did you just put that in for the pure pleasure of disparaging the differently abled children among us?
    ...those least able to defend themselves.

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  81. Guy must be a well known transient around Pioneer Square is all I can figure, Doug. But how can you be well known, if you are a transient?

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  82. A transient with well-honed PR Skills?

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  83. A transient with a good public defender and a lot of luck, hopefully transient luck.

    Michael Savage just said he got an e-mail from a physicist friend who knows some folk in homeland security and the bells and whistles are going of in San Francisco, with feds running all over the place, for whatever that might be worth. About an hour ago he got this e-mail from his friend, he says.

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  84. Join the jihad, and help end global warming--OBL

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  85. I never shot anyone, as a child.

    Known of lots of kids that were trusted with loaded guns. Never thought of them as a danger, to others or themselves.

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  87. Yeah, everytime I got mad enough to try and shoot somebody, my hands would be shaking so bad I'd miss. I wuz pretty good on rabbits and quail, though.

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  88. The Unforgiven and Unforgiven II.

    Two very good, but not very hard, songs from Metallica.

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  89. I was thinking a child might be 5 years old, which I thought, gave me plenty of room for me to wax righteous in defense of the Retards among us.

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  90. Childhood begins and ends as a 9 year old, don't it?

    Leaving you in that perpetual state of being, no?

    I was more referencing the intelligence of the dogs, not so much the children, but ...

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  91. Keep your wits about you, bob, thar's real bear in them there woods

    BOISE, Idaho (Associated Press) -- Federal and state wildlife officials said Friday they are investigating the killing of a grizzly bear in north-central Idaho, where the last confirmed sighting of the species was in 1946.

    The bear, a member of a threatened species, was killed Monday by a hunter near Kelly Creek about three miles from the Montana border, said Steve Nadeau, statewide large carnivore manager for the Idaho fish and game department.

    Nadeau said the bear was not confirmed as a grizzly until Friday, after the hunter and guide had packed it out of the remote, roadless area and contacted authorities.

    Officials did not release the identities of the hunter or the guide, who was not present when the bear was killed.

    Nadeau said the hunter, who is from Tennessee, was on a guided trip, hunting black bear with bait. Black bear hunting season opened Aug. 30.

    Nadeau said the male grizzly weighed 400 to 500 pounds and was 6 to 8 years old

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  92. The opportunity for hunting these bears will be disappearing, best kill 'em while we can.

    Let's lift the protections and extend the hunting season, they're doomed, regardless.

    May as well get some use out of them, before they're gone.

    WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 _ and the entire population gone from Alaska _ because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday.

    Only in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland are any of the world's 16,000 polar bears expected to survive through the end of the century, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which is the scientific arm of the Interior Department.

    USGS projects that polar bears during the next half-century will disappear along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia and lose 42 percent of the Arctic range they need to live in during summer in the Polar Basin when they hunt and breed. A polar bear's life usually lasts about 30 years.

    "Projected changes in future sea ice conditions, if realized, will result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world's current polar bear population by the mid 21st century," the report says.

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  93. Better to shoot those polar bears, then let them starve to death.

    That'd be cruel, to allow them to starve.

    Charge the hunters a reasonable fee, then use the money to expand the grizzly population in the wilds of Idaho.

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  94. There's been talk of re-introducing the griz--quess we won't have to:) When the talk of re-introducing the wolf started, Idaho Fish and Game made an estimate that there were maybe five in the state--I laughed, because that meant in my life I had either seen or heard them all. IFandG is the last place I'd go for info. I saw a wolf cross the road by Dworshak Dam one time, mean lean wolf, right out of Little Red Riding Hood. I heard one one time howl--I can tell you you would never mistake it--awesome--would freeze a deer in its tracks I'd bet. A griz though, never seen one, or even heard of a sighting around here. Kelly Creek it not that far from here. Now I have been warned!

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  95. I can tell you that what elk we have left don't need any grizzys around. They have enough problems as it is. I'm sure if they had the vote I could predict how they would vote on a griz proposal. Unanimously, NO.

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  96. They'd say, we don't care to have our gene pool improved through culling the unfit, just let us be.

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  97. I may have mentioned this, but a few years back it was discovered by some intrepid reporter that the Idaho Fish and Game Department had quite a few more pickup trucks than it had employees, and that counted in the secretaries, etc. too. This caused a big howl. The complaints filed in Whit's post about the 535 goes just as well to our state legislature here, I do believe.

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  98. Nadeau works for IFandG--meaning the identification of the bear as a griz might be highly 'problematical'.:) Might have been a panda or polar bear, or a......

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  99. I wish there was the slightest chance I would be around in fifty years, cause I'd dearly love to bet me some money on the Polar Bears.

    Those people that can't tell me what the weather will be like next week are telling me what it's going to be like fifty years from now. I really, really want some of that bet.

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  100. Thinking of that blood gorged mosquito on the earlier post, I listened as a high quality biologist was asked one time if there was any species--they were talking of the Endangered Species Act--that had no benefit at all to life on earth and that he won't mind seeing go extinct. His answer was yes I've thought about that and I can think of only one--the mosquito. If it vanished, no harm done that he could think of, and much good might come from it.

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  101. Coast-to-Coast time--Dr. Leir is discussing his latest alien implant removal surgery. Nite.

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  102. To some, it's childhood:
    For me,
    Nirvanna!

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  103. I like that Perpetual aspect, however.

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  104. One of my favorite things about the place is the Mosquitos.
    Real Wusses, the are, weak-ass sisters compared to Canadian Monsters, or even Central California blood suckers.
    Since I am Prime, Grade A in Mosquito-World, this is much appreciated.
    I'd still vote for their elimination in a Heartbeat.
    ...along with the wolves and grizzies.

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  105. They'll still be plenty of griz up in BC.
    I'll try and find a really neat article my wife had about north of Alert Bay, AlBob.
    You still planing on making that trip?
    Said it's as removed as you can get from civilization without having to get into extreme climates.
    Mainland teeming with Griz, don't know if the Island has any.

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  106. "One of my favorite things about THIS place is the Mosquitos."

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  107. We're going to British Columbia sometime next week.

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