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."

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Haiti, Another Example of why America Matters




Hat Tip: Lilith

Haiti response shows the difference between the EU and a superpower

The earthquake in Haiti provoked prompt and effective action from the US, and waffle from the EU, says Christopher Booker

By Christopher Booker
Published: 6:49PM GMT 16 Jan 2010
Telegraph


Compare and contrast the initial responses of two "major world powers" to the Haitian earthquake disaster. Within hours of Port-au-Prince crumbling into ruins, the US had sent in an aircraft carrier with 19 helicopters, hospital and assault ships, the 82nd Airborne Division with 3,500 troops and hundreds of medical personnel. They put the country's small airport back on an operational footing, and President Obama pledged an initial $100 million dollars in emergency aid.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the European Union geared itself up with a Brussels press conference led by Commission Vice-President Baroness Ashton, now the EU's High Representative – our new foreign minister. A scattering of bored-looking journalists in the Commission's lavishly appointed press room heard the former head of Hertfordshire Health Authority stumbling through a prepared statement, in which she said that she had conveyed her "condolences" to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, and pledged three million euros in aid.

A gaggle of other Commision spokesmen followed, to report offers of help from individual member states, such as a few search and rescue teams, tents and water purification units. We were also told that an official EU representative would be trying to reach Haiti from the Dominican Republic, to stay for a few hours before returning to report what he had found.

Memories might have gone back to December 2004, which saw similarly contrasting responses to the Indian Ocean tsunami catastrophe which cost nearly 300,000 lives. Again, within hours the US took the lead in forming an alliance with Australia, India and Japan, and had sent in two battle groups fully equipped to deal with such an emergency, including 20 ships led by two carriers with 90 helicopters. President Bush immediately pledged $35 million, later rising to $350 million. Because they were self-sufficient, the US forces pulled off a stupendously successful life-saving operation, almost entirely ignored by the British media, notably the BBC (whose journalists on the spot were nevertheless quite happy to hitch lifts from US helicopters).

The EU, by contrast, pledged three million euros for the tsunami victims, called for a three-minute silence (three times longer than is customary to remember the millions who died in two world wars) and proposed a "donors' conference" in Jakarta nearly two weeks later to discuss what might be done.

The only real difference between these two episodes is that, in the five years which have elapsed since 2004, the EU has even more noisily laid claim to its status as what Tony Blair liked to call "a world superpower", capable of standing on the world stage as an equal of the US. Anyone who witnessed the dismal showing at Thursday's press conference of the High Representative, which would scarcely have passed muster at a board meeting of the Hertfordshire Health Authority, might well cringe at the thought.




142 comments:

  1. Since everything is BUSH's fault...

    I guess leaving the most well prepared, most able and best trained rescue force in the known universe was all Bush's fault...

    Blame the amazing preparedness on Bush and THANK all that is HOLY that Gitmo is there to supply food, water and medicine....

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  2. I don't know how one marinades in conservative policy for 14 years without the essence of conservatism penetrating every pore of one being.

    Sat Jan 16, 03:44:00 PM EST

    Oh, but it did.

    And it all started with a Christmas gift from my father: Bill Buckley's On The Firing Line. It went on through Rand, Friedman, Hazlitt, Jaffa, Nash, Hayek, Rothbard, Mises Sumner, et al, and every regular contributor to NR and researcher at Cato over many years.

    I tormented friends, family members, and the occasional stranger with lecturettes drawn from any and all of the above.

    Heady times, at least for me. I regarded political conservatism, regardless of its fundamental ambivalence, as an essentially intellectual movement that made considerable inroads precisely because of that. I still think that's the case but I don't regard today's internet/television/radio- driven conservatism as such. To me it's conservatism running on fumes, and the fumes are noxious.

    In any event I was long the one person everyone could count on for a political argument when the mood struck.

    Even my brother and long-time sparring partner, a recent convert to pop conservatism who can quote chapter and verse from WND bulletins, can't engage me.

    Bah humbug, says I.

    Bah humbug.

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  3. Everywhere you look the world needs helicopters.

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  4. Must Always look for the "Middle" Ground, Trish. ALWAYS look for the Middle Ground.

    Except in War; and then, unlike the US Military leadership, you must get on the High Ground.

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  5. Literally, not figuratively.

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  6. You should have went for the purple mocs:

    "If a woman does not keep pace with her companions, perhaps it is because she hears a different drummer. Let her step to the music which she hears, however measured or far away."

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  7. Unlike poor Doug, who is condemned for eternity to cite Hugh Hewitt in support of his every statement, I am my own authority.

    Sat Jan 16, 05:41:00 PM EST


    I thought there should be some context.

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  8. Doug will be back, momentarily.

    He's, currently, digging through past posts to find examples of Trish's citations from her favorite "thinkers."

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  9. They didn't have them in my size. (Difficulties of last-minute shoe-shopping in South America.) And couldn't have them in before my departure.

    Pink it is.

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  10. Who's that guy she used throw up all the time? Ambrosia Evans?

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  11. "It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research,"

    ...apropos Haiti

    1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
    2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
    3' [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
    4' the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
    5' Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

    Bible Possibly Written Centuries Earlier, Text Suggests

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  12. The beauty of Our political system is that if we get good and mad we don't have to wait "too" long to "throw the bums out."

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  13. But, the poor old Haitians are just so screwed. They just don't have a chance in the world.

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  15. rufus...

    over one billion dollars a year is sent back to haiti by haitians living in the usa...

    a full 33% of all black doctors in NY are from haiti

    Haitians in America prosper...

    Maybe it's time for those Haitians to return to Haiti and build their homeland (even if they are occupiers) (yeah i know they were brought there as slaves)

    As our resident "nationalism" expert the rodent would say, they have no right to be a nation, they are a city state at best...

    Who is to blame?

    point fingers in a circle..

    but in the end the PEOPLE of Haiti are to blame....

    Just as the PEOPLE of Palestine are to blame for their situation, and the PEOPLE of Israel are to blame for their situation...

    Americans are to BLAME for our own situation... yes America has a lot to account for... Abundant food, great lifestyles, great healthcare...

    Yes America is to blame for our own situation, just as everyone in the world should look at themselves,, good and bad...

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  16. Allen: "It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research."

    The Jawhist and Elohist threads of the Torah were written around the time of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, when Israel and Judah split into two political entities. "J" essentially was depicting David in his (or her!) stories of Yahweh, which also tended to paint Judah in a good light. The Elohist stuff was a step back from a hands-on sort of deity, God interfaced through the "Angel of the LORD" which was a kind of avatar. And the northern tribes were depicted better in those writings. Ezra slapped it all together in the Exile, together with some new material from the priesthood and the Second Law they "found" hiding mixed with some Al Franken ballots, and you got your Torah.

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  17. The only thing that should be discussed about the Torah with the world is the 7 laws of Noah...

    and that is a fact jack (or jan)

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  18. Are the arabs helping Haiti in any way?

    Any aid from Hamas, Iran or Hezbollah?

    What about the Arab League?

    I wonder what the world's response would be if there was a disaster in let's say Sudan?

    Oh right there is...

    snore...

    I bet Haiti will be off the headlines by Wed.

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  19. The only thing that should be discussed about the Torah with the world is the 7 laws of Noah...

    and that is a fact jack (or jan)


    Says who?

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  20. t states at BC:

    which itself is a concept from the Bible. It’s an eye for an eye, not a life for an eye, you see.


    No T, you do not understand the Hebrew Bible, if you did you would not make ignorant statements like the one above...

    There is NO eye for an eye in the Bible...

    There is No concept in the Hebrew Bible that advocates blinding someone who was blinded..

    Property damage does not equate to physical harm, that is the lesson of "eye for an eye" dont feel bad, so many in the "other nations" are also quite mis-educated...

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  21. whit said...
    The only thing that should be discussed about the Torah with the world is the 7 laws of Noah...

    and that is a fact jack (or jan)

    Says who?


    The folks who WROTE it...

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  22. WiO: There is NO eye for an eye in the Bible...

    On the contrary, it is written:

    Exod.21:[24] Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

    Lev.24:[20] Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.

    Deut.19:[21] And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

    And it was actually a step up from stoning people for getting into bar fights, because it introduced the concept of proportionate retribution.

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  23. quote the english written torah without the oral torah is mental jerking off...

    and thus..

    why discuss torah with those that dont even understand it...

    proof texting is bullshit...

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  24. Has Israel weighed in with their "aid" package, yet?


    On a lighter note, from Jules Crittenden's blog:

    Hey Martha, even Ted Kennedy worked factory gates. It was a good place to meet broads

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  25. rufus said...
    Has Israel weighed in with their "aid" package, yet?

    last Friday the IDF planes arrived

    Ben-Arye, who heads the Israeli delegation to the beleaguered Caribbean nation, was quoted by Israel Radio as saying that three search-and-rescue teams would leave at first light to search for survivors in several spots around the city, among them the collapsed UN headquarters.

    An Israeli aid delegation landed in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Friday night. Around 220 soldiers and officers are in the delegation, including 120 medical personnel that will operate an emergency field hospital. An IDF plane loaded with equipment was expected to land shortly after the staff.

    Dozens of seriously injured Haitians will be transferred to the Israeli delegation's field hospital.

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  26. I must say that if the Chinese were to park an aircraft carrier or two off of the coast of Haiti a lot of American knickers would be twisted up tight...

    ...it IS America's backyard dontcha know?

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  27. Ash said...
    I must say that if the Chinese were to park an aircraft carrier or two off of the coast of Haiti a lot of American knickers would be twisted up tight...


    But the Chinese havent park "carriers" off the shores of anywhere for humanitarian aid anywhere....


    so when the queen has balls, she will be king, until then china still does nothing of any measure in humanitarian aid anywhere

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  28. That sounds like the Muslims who claim that the only way to understand the Koran is to read it in the Arabic.

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  29. whit said...
    That sounds like the Muslims who claim that the only way to understand the Koran is to read it in the Arabic.


    well that's your right to feel that way...


    and it is true, to learn Russian lit you need to read it in Russian...

    but the most major point is that the Torah is comprised by 2 interdependent sections, the oral and written torahs and most folks out there that are not of the tribe, insist on cutting out 70% of the torah so it will fit in a reader's digest version...

    Long ago, the elders of the Jewish people understood how things got taken out of context.. (just look at the christian versions of the "old test" for an example) and thus (way before christianity was invented) limited the discussion of Torah with the gentiles (other nations) with the simple adage..

    The only thing that is important for the world to know about Torah is the 7 laws of Noah, they are for all humanity...

    Hillel and shammai were great Rabbis, one day a pagan asked shammai what's the scoop on the torah and answer me while standing on one leg...

    SHammai took a swat at him for being a jerk with his walking stick.. (gandalf anyone?) and then stated:

    Torah is: What is hateful to you, dont do to other, the rest is commentary...

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  30. The Chinese are too busy parking oil drilling platforms.

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  31. Lilith said...

    Doug: They put cloths ON to make out?

    "Obviously you're coming in at the end"

    ---

    Aren't you supposed to come at the end?

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  32. Lilith said...

    Whit: A Boston man has been arrested three times in three days in neighboring Massachusetts towns.
    ---

    "The judges in that revolving door justice system would be right at home here in Washington, where we had six cops killed in as many months from assholes with mile-long rap sheets who made bail"

    ---
    Rev. Huckabee has assured the cops families that they will be born again.

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  33. I think if there comes a day, when god, anyone's god, I am not that particular, wishes to speak to me, he or she will do so in a language that I will understand.

    Otherwise, what's the point?

    It does strike me as comical that a god who chose to talk to human beings would pick only the most obscure language and ignore the major languages.

    I would be more impressed if the god would have a thought and put it in everyone's brain at the same time. That would catch some attention.

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  34. Whit: That sounds like the Muslims who claim that the only way to understand the Koran is to read it in the Arabic.

    It's a neat trick, an "Oral Torah" overlay that allows modern rabbis to soften the harsh penalties exacted in the original primitive tribal era.

    The Law said this:

    Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

    The Law was put into practice exactly as written:

    And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day...And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

    Sticks and stones, but Jews don't do that stuff in the 21st Century because they have an oral tradition that completely overrides the written one. And that's good, actually. WiO completely missed the point. Even the lesson of his "Oral Torah" concerning the eye-for-eye Law is that every action is to have a proportionate retribution. I brought it up in the context of Habu calling for carpet nuking the whole Muslim world because we caught the knickerbomber.

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  35. lilith says:


    It's a neat trick, an "Oral Torah" overlay that allows modern rabbis to soften the harsh penalties exacted in the original primitive tribal era.


    exactly my point, discussing Torah with ignorant people is spitting in the wind..

    you have not a clue to which you are speaking, you show just how amazingly stupid you are on this subject..

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  36. to call the Oral Torah...... "It's a neat trick, an "Oral Torah" overlay that allows modern rabbis to soften the harsh penalties exacted in the original primitive tribal era.



    how pathetic...

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  37. t states: Even the lesson of his "Oral Torah" concerning the eye-for-eye Law is that every action is to have a proportionate retribution.

    no your point was that eyes were taken for eyes...

    that is not the law... never... eyes are not taken for eyes... limbs for limbs...

    never.

    your bias upon placing your POV on other's collected pov's is showing...

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  38. Doug: Rev. Huckabee has assured the cops families that they will be born again.

    That's the good news. The bad news is that they'll be born near Moscow, Idaho, on an alfalfa farm being platted for McMansions.

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  39. deuce...

    It does strike me as comical that a god who chose to talk to human beings would pick only the most obscure language and ignore the major languages.


    That's what the Jews asked, and the L-rd answered, but I have asked and been refused by all the others on the planet, you the Jews are the last to be asked.

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  40. CORINNE BAILEY RAE

    A different individual's look at the issue in Deuce's Fickle Finger link.

    A rather more banal death, however.

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  41. Oh, I'm sorry WiO, you broke the rule I have about being called Ms T. I just want people to call me Lilith. And that's a shame because I did enjoy talking to you here.

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  42. Sun Jan 17, 03:00:00 PM EST

    LOL

    GD money-hungry Gaia Plunderers!

    In a few years we'll be reading bad poetry about monetary ecstasy.

    Any complaints will be met with:

    "You just don't understand"

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  43. Doug, that's like Mexican Lesbians Campaigning for Pat Buchanan.

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  44. This is a Really Great Video from one of the smartest guys around explaining what's getting ready to happen with World Energy Flows, And Why. The second part of the video is a sop to his hosts, and isn't of much use.

    Watch the First Half. It's really worth the time. Really.

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  45. Lilith said...
    Oh, I'm sorry WiO, you broke the rule I have about being called Ms T. I just want people to call me Lilith. And that's a shame because I did enjoy talking to you here.


    But you stated: I brought it up in the context of Habu calling for carpet nuking the whole Muslim world because we caught the knickerbomber.

    And that person THERE was T...

    So confusing...

    I am Both What is "Occupation" and Pork Rinds for Allah, call me either...

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  46. Forgot about Axelrod's other shmuck:

    "My wife and I are both unenrolled (independent), always have been and we got six Brown calls today – three from volunteers, one from his daughter Ayla, one from Newt and the best one from Curt Schilling.
    Not a single Martha call.
    However a few Dem friends of mine got calls from Obama and they all mocked him.
    As you would expect, it’s about healthcare and everyone hates the bill and wants it stopped.
    By the way, as much as they are voting against Obama, they are voting against Deval Patrick, too.
    The people of MA have been duped by David Axelrod twice and they are not pleased.

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  47. and I stated

    t states at BC:

    which itself is a concept from the Bible. It’s an eye for an eye, not a life for an eye, you see.

    ReplyDelete
  48. What is "Occupation" said...
    lilith says:


    It's a neat trick, an "Oral Torah" overlay that allows modern rabbis to soften the harsh penalties exacted in the original primitive tribal era.



    lilith, t, ms t.. a rose by any other name is still a rose...

    why the hoopla over your own invented personas?

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  49. Kerrey on Scott Brown & Evolution
    [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

    As Jonah has noted, Bob Kerrey has smeared Scott Brown this weekend on the topic of evolution (a little out-of-left felt, but such is the way of the Left in this race):

    “If he’s running against 60 votes and wins, that is not good,” said Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska. “It says that in Massachusetts, they are willing to elect a guy who doesn’t believe in evolution just to keep the Democrats from having 60 votes.”

    Brown spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom comments to NRO: "Scott Brown believes in evolution but in the case of Bob Kerrey he's willing to make an exception."

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  50. One More Time To Pretend

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb38LHfntgA



    Almost everyone else is upstairs playing Axis and Allies.

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  51. Now with sturdy plastic game pieces!

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  52. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  53. lordy, the demands of a neurotic drama queen!

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  54. How many analysts learned by playing Squad Leader and whatnot to read a sit map long before they arrived at Huachuca?

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  55. Eddie Izzard:

    Hitler never played Risk as a child.

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  56. It's like Montessori school, Ash.

    Every idiosyncrasy no matter how bat-shitty gently and lovingly nourished.

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  57. That game is $149.00 and up at Amazon but 33.49 elsewhere. What's up with that?

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  58. Not a clue.

    It's just a board game, for God's sake.

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  59. why the hoopla over your own invented personas?

    Little things make Teresita happy, like seeing her name there with silver cluster or what-have-you, or being allowed to post new topics. All I'm asking, and it's the smallest thing in the world, only the tenth part of a flea bite, is that people call me Lilith, or Lil, or L. That's it! Not so much! Never mind what Teresita writes on the BC. And if no one here can do that one tiny little thing, then I'll just quietly cut and paste stuff here once or twice a day like Sam does, until Deuce and Whit start deleting all my comments.

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  60. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  61. I thought you would appreciate that, Trish. You've mentioned his name a couple of times, in the past.

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  62. Lilith said...

    "Ezra slapped it all together in the Exile, together with some new material from the priesthood and the Second Law they "found" hiding mixed with some Al Franken ballots, and you got your Torah."

    That is an opinion.

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  63. "You've mentioned his name a couple of times"

    At least. I have.

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  64. The most amazing thing about Torah that the gentiles dont seem to understand is?

    They don't have to be "Jews" "The Chosen Ones" "Perfect" to be "OK" with the One's whose name is unpronounceable...

    Both Christianity and Islam claim the have the exclusive path to G-d...

    Torah is only for the Jews. Pathway to G-d aint..

    All people have a path to the creator.. The Torah's POV is that all people share the basic requirement of living within the 7 laws of Noah...

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  65. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  66. Canada: THE MODEL

    Real Americans don't wear Knickers...

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  67. For nearly 2,000 years, it was the argument of churchmen that rabbis had manipulated the Torah as a defense against the threat of Christianity. The Dead Sea Scrolls put that myth to rest; some of these having been written 200-300 years prior to Christianity.

    The good Germans gave the world modern deconstructionist Biblical criticism, such as that posited by Lilith (minus the Al Franken).

    If the recent discovery withstands peer review, the chronology of modern Biblical deconstructionist criticism will suffer the same fate as the aforementioned myth of the churchmen.

    Eventually, sufficient evidence will be uncovered to show that the Hebrew Bible had its origins some 3,500 years ago, more or less.

    Why the innocent link to an archaeological find should raise such a tempest says a great deal. Such is the way of science: constructive deconstruction of myths.

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  68. Allen: The good Germans gave the world modern deconstructionist Biblical criticism, such as that posited by Lilith (minus the Al Franken).

    I'm heavily inflenced by professor Harold Bloom, who is an American Jew, not a German nor a Christian.

    Wiki: In The Book of J, he and David Rosenberg (who translated the Biblical texts) portrayed one of the posited ancient documents that formed the basis of the first five books of the bible (see documentary hypothesis) as the work of a great literary artist who had no intention of composing a dogmatically religious work. They further envisaged this anonymous writer as a woman attached to the court of the successors of the Israelite kings David and Solomon.

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  69. I can speak for me. No delete here, but I did delete something that Sam put up once.

    If Whit deleted something. I am sure he had a good reason.

    I base that on what does not get deleted.

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  70. I'm heavily inflenced by Ramban, Rambam, Akiba & Shammai, that outranks any Jewish Professor

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  71. Lilith,

    "The name higher criticism was first employed by the German Biblical scholar Eichhorn, in the second edition of his "Einleitung", appearing in 1787."

    Catholic Encyclopedia

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  72. allen: If the recent discovery withstands peer review, the chronology of modern Biblical deconstructionist criticism will suffer the same fate as the aforementioned myth of the churchmen.

    Why is this important to me? My mother and brother are Seventh Day Adventists. They are Christians who keep the Jewish Sabbath. But not even the Jews kept the Sabbath until the Exile. There was no such thing as a seven day week among the Jews until they picked it up from the Babylonians. Why seven? Five visible planets plus the Sun and moon. Between Deuteronomy and 2 Kings 11 (circa 885 BCE), there is only a single mention of a sabbath, together with the new moon, and it could refer to a yearly, not weekly festival. So this is what I'm looking for: Evidence that David, Solomon, Samuel, or any of the Judges kept the Sabbath, or even attached as much importance to it that Jeremiah and Isaiah and Ezekiel did during and after the Exile. I'm betting it's not there.

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  73. "The name higher criticism was first employed by the German Biblical scholar Eichhorn, in the second edition of his "Einleitung", appearing in 1787."

    The Original Catholic Encyclopedia

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  74. 57 elk, same as our number of states, all in one herd, bedded down, dozens of deer, one bighorn, 7 bald eagles, 3 heron and about 10 fishermen, two to whom I talked, not much doing, on a trip to Troy, Oregon yesterday. Odd thing was, there was snow and ice on both sides of the river, in many places, but fields clear after that. Never seen that before. The cold of the river water must have kept the shoreline cold enough not to melt, it was a 50's day down there. There's never much snow down there. It was from our early cold snap.

    Not a torah or biblical criticizer in sight.

    Nice trip.

    There was an article in the paper the other day, about wolves around Kamiah. Having cleaned out the elk, they were staking out a school bus stop out in the county. The father was worried. The wolves are coming right into people's back yards.

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  75. Welcome back friend Bob.

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  76. After the Knights had supped, they mounted up, each going out into the darkest part of the forest, his own way, to follow his own quest, to find his own grail, with a clear mind, and pure intentions guided by the longings of his own heart.

    Not a synagogue, church or mosque in sight. Not a political party, or nation, in sight. No community organizer to lead that Knight.

    The western way.

    alas, the ideal now buried deep in modern mass society.

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  77. May I call you Miss Lily of the Night? heh:)

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  78. We were leaving Tuesday or Wednesday, after the books come. Now I got to take my friend Dale to Walla Walla on Wednesday for a colonoscopy and cancer screen at the VA there. At this rate I'll never get out of here. But looks like Thursday is the day.

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  79. When the krauts deconstructed weren't they really trying to demythologize? Which is like trying to empty the sea of its water, with the rivers still flowing in.

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  80. bob said...
    After the Knights had supped, they mounted up, each going out into the darkest part of the forest, his own way, to follow his own quest, to find his own grail, with a clear mind, and pure intentions guided by the longings of his own heart.


    Which Knights are you referring to?

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  81. to find his own grail, with a clear mind, and pure intentions guided by the longings of his own heart.


    Which generally means, he gets latched onto some woman or other. :)

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  82. If Dale has any anxiety, tell him the procedure is a breeze. He'll likely wake up and ask them when they're going to start.

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  83. Those medieval knights aquesting.

    I just wrote him an e-mail, warning him he may need to shit on the way down, from the laxatives. And be prepared for this.

    He's an older guy than me, retired army, bad luck on gambling, and women, lost his wife, true believer in Christ, and a staunch republican.

    He'salready had open heart surgery, I don't think he'll be nervous about this.

    The wife will probably end up inviting him to live downstairs, now its vacant.

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  84. I figured you were on your way to Ohio not out chasing medieval knights.

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  85. Lilith,

    Your interpretation of text would circumscribe the Creator. XXXX do not take the meaning of their text in this way. Instead, the language used to describe creation is progressive, saying, in essence, “When G-d began creating.”

    This is how the great commentators took the meaning. Rashi wrote:

    “…This verse does not intend to teach the sequence of creation -- that these were [created] first…Scripture did not [intend to] teach anything of the earlier or later sequence [of creation]…”

    BEREISHIS - RASHI COMMENTARY

    The Rambam would give as his first principle of orthodoxy:

    "1. I believe with perfect faith that G-d is the Creator and Ruler of all things. He alone has made, does make, and will make all things."

    The Rambam’s Thirteen Principles of Faith

    All this said, I must confess confusion over how something as harmless as the link to the dating of an ancient artifact could lead to such defensiveness.

    When I recently reported on the discovery of a nearly microscopic, parasitic wasp, there was no such consternation. It was taken for what it was, scientific progress.

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  86. Don't you wish that you could do something for Israel?

    Don't you wish that you could sort out all her problems?

    Don't you wish that you could make a difference?

    Well, you can!

    The Fun Way to Support Israel.

    .

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  87. I hate the thought of not being able to hop in the car and go for a drive like bob did yesterday or the roadtrip lil did recently.

    It bothers me that some people want to essentially take that pleasure away from the rest of us.

    BTW - I certainly haven't deleted anything in weeks if not months.

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  88. Well, the San Diego Chargers went down tonight. I really like Phillip Rivers (he's an old ACC QB) and wanted to see them go all the way. This game between the Jets and the Chargers was the best one all weekend, all the others being blowouts.

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  89. Waiting for the books Allen recommended to arrive, Melody, so as to have something good to read on the trip. And, then, Dale e-mailed said he needn't a ride. I'd offered in the past. So, Thursday.

    The wife asked a good question. Are there wolves around the Grand Ronde? You'd think there would be, with 57 by our count lying around there in one group. The news stories always are about up around Kamiah though and the deeper forests. On the breaks above the Grand Ronde in places there's farmland, so I don't know the answer about wolves around the Grand Ronde.

    Where that bighorn was, no wolf is going, I can tell you. Way the hell out on a ledge. My wife has good eyes for seeing such stuff.

    This is the time of year to go there though to see stuff. The critters come down where its a little warmer.

    Just like the Indians used to winter by the rivers.

    We were on the Grand Ronde, wife big with child, as they say, when St. Helens blew, and the big cloud drifted over us. Hence her name.

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  90. The new season of 24 starts tonight. Let's hope that Jack Bauer is same as he ever was.

    I remember the latter seasons of Gunsmoke when it went soft and crazy trying to stay current with the love and peace mood of the sixties.

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  91. The Rebbi explained: “In G-d’s plan, it’s the person that wins the Lotto, not the number.”

    heh, well, I may try out my new automatic lottery number generator the wife got me for Chirstmas, to support Israel.

    But if I lose, does that mean God is mad at me?

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  92. I have a friend on my face book from Italy. She friend requested me, I guess because we have the same last name. But anyway, she's sweet and always asks how, I'm doing, always making me smile, etc...And she's always apologizing for her bad English.

    So, she wishes me a happy birthday on Friday by singing it in Italian. And I responding by saying something like, "Thank you for the birthday wishes, I knew whatever you had to say would be full of spunk and make me smile. You made my day."

    I went dictionary.com and translated it into Italian and said, "you'll have to excuse my Italian dictionary.com translated it so I'm not sure if any of it is correct."

    She said to me, I want to make you laughing, I sent you an email.

    The email said that the translation was perfect except for one mistake...a very big mistake. It translated SPUNK with the word SEMEN....happy birthday once again.

    I thought it was a cute story to share.

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  93. bob- But if I lose, does that mean God is mad at me?


    Did you really lose?

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  94. I can jump in my car a take a road trip. Last year my daughter and went to Gatlinburg TN. We planned it Thursday and left Sunday evening because of the big snow storm coming in on Monday morning. And this year we are going to Kentucky to Cave City. If anyone knows anything about it let me know. It looks like a lot of outdoor stuff so with this crazy weather I don't how the first week in March is going to be like.

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  95. Well, that's a good question, heh.

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  96. We are going through Athens, Tennessee, where ever that is, to see where the ancestors on my mom's side long ago had a plantation and slaves. Don't blame me, I had nothing to do with it.

    Also, Virginia, where the same group earlier were early settlers. Before Independence.

    I can show you southern Ohio if you wish, Melody :)

    From the inside of a HolyDay Inn.

    But, I best quit.

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  97. That's okay, Bob, we'll just head south. But we always talk about going to Cedar Point but March is to cold for that.

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  98. I've seen Abe Lincoln's log cabin.

    But I've never been to New York City.

    I saw Vegas when there was no strip, and LA when it was still livable.

    I've seen little villages that don't exist anymore.

    Mom was in Seattle when Mercer Island was a deer park, and grandfather saw this area when there wasn't anybody here, so there.

    My e-mailer doesn't work again. I can receive, but not send, for some reason.

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  99. bob,

    You do realize that your waiting on those books has now altered the universe and, consequently, our "fates"?

    Feel the power!

    ReplyDelete
  100. My e-mailer doesn't work again. I can receive, but not send, for some reason.

    Check your anti-virus protection. Sometimes the IP's mail server will sense if a sender's AV protection is faulty, and hold back outgoing mail.

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  101. Why is it you can send an e-mail one hour, then it freezes up the next? I have this trouble all the time.

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  102. My daughter just put in a bunch of new anti-virus stuff over Christmas break.

    It's kind of irritating.

    ReplyDelete
  103. ...when he could have just went to Borders and been on his merry little way. Sounds like procrastination to me.

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  104. Maybe the server gets overloaded?

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  105. Bob, did you hit the send button? (:

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  106. MeLoDy said...
    That's okay, Bob, we'll just head south. But we always talk about going to Cedar Point but March is to cold for that.



    Kings Island every couple of years is open on Easter Sunday...

    Just Jews, Japs & Pagans are there...

    no lines, a tad bit cold, but really NO LINES, kids rode the major coasters without even getting out in between turns, they just would get waived thru...

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  107. They wouldn't have had those books here, I think. Maybe at Bookpeople in Moscow. But I doubt it.

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  108. Which button is the send button, and what does it do?

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  109. We have to go the first week in March. That's when my daughter's spring break is. She wants to go see Yellowstone...drive...in a week. But that's not happening.

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  110. Allen, do you realize by recommending those books, you've turned me into a good sam, helping my friend out?

    Thank you for that.

    Actually it will be kind of fun, we get along, and will be celebrating Brown's victory in Massachusettes.

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  111. "I asked the pope to find a way to make it possible to open the archives in the Vatican in order to give some details of the papacy of Pius XII in order to ease tensions between the Jewish people and Catholics,"

    Jewish leader confronts pope on Holocaust "silence"

    It took about 40 years before a translator had the courage to leak the world's first glimpse of the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thereafter, a torrent of translations followed. Now, we must wait for the same to occur in this case. It will not be pretty.

    Court Supports Editor on Rights to Dead Sea Text

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  112. We did all the Ripley's stuff in Gatlinburg which was pretty cool. But cave city looks like a lot of out door stuff. I just look up the average for the year and March was average high in the 50's and average low in the 30's.

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  113. She wants to go see Yellowstone...drive...in a week.

    From back east? She's out of her mind.

    Besides, you'd need a snowmobile.

    Or, snow machine, as Sarah Palin calls them.

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  114. She said, "We can do it, Mom." I guess we're not to suppose to stop...for anything.

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  115. Christ in March? Shit, do know what snow is? Do you know what a spring storm is?

    She sounds a little like my wife though, ready to hightail it at a moments without a thought or care in the world. I kinda like that.

    Generally, without a little guidance, people like that tend to not have long lives, though. :)

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  116. I guess we're not to suppose to stop...for anything.

    heh, then you'll end up wired out like me :)

    I'm goin' to the Casino for coffee.

    Take care, Melody.

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  117. Best time to see Yellowstone, I figure, is in the middle of September after Labor Day, when the crowds thin out, but before the snow hits. That's when we're going next time. This is what it looked like, second week of October 2009.

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  118. bob,

    ...couple days ago, saw cartoon lambasting the Right Reverend Pat Robertson...a spoof on Michelangelo’s creation of Adam...this time Adam was played by Robertson...with G-d inserting a large cork into Robertson's mouth...

    Expect Evangelical Christians to start blowing themselves up over the cartoon humiliation of their dear leader.

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  119. That's awesome, Lil. She said she doesn't care if she drives there stays for a day and drive home. The idea of a road trip is to see the things along the way.

    ReplyDelete
  120. "I'm Tired" by Robert A. Hall"

    I'll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce,` and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.

    I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth around" to people` who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.

    I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

    I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros, and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela . Won't multiculturalism be beautiful?

    I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.

    I believe "a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin." I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of US Senators from Illinois.

    I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

    I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

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  121. This Madame Coakley in Massachusettes must be a real ditwit. I've read blog entries from folks back there, counting yard signs, and other indicators. Unless they are far off the track, it looks like Brown will win.

    If so, it looks like that's it for ObamaCare. And from the most unlikely of places.

    I've never seen anything like these last couple years in my life. Really quite amazing.



    ...couple days ago, saw cartoon lambasting the Right Reverend Pat Robertson...a spoof on Michelangelo’s creation of Adam...this time Adam was played by Robertson...with G-d inserting a large cork into Robertson's mouth...

    That is really funny, Allen.

    Lord, what a moron Pat Robertson is.

    The Haitians made a pact with the devil to free themselves from the French......

    No wonder Ruf is down on the preachers.

    If they were all like that.....

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  122. If Dale has any anxiety, tell him the procedure is a breeze. He'll likely wake up and ask them when they're going to start.

    Just got an e-mail back from Dale. He's been through it before. And, he had this good idea, he is going against the instructions a little, and beginning purging early in the morning on Tuesday, stead of Tuesday night.

    He ought to be shitless by Wednesday morning.

    Unlike Trish's dog.

    I know you're all interested in this, but that is, under the circumstances, of a long drive, a really really good idea.

    I think the e-mail server just gets overwhelmed once in a while.

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  123. They ARE "All" like that, Bob. Some are just a little "smoother" than others.

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  124. Road trip...

    How coincidental...

    What DO people do after long, exhausting hours of Axis and Allies?

    They watch this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1QA1Iq3b1M

    For the five hundredth time.

    While the obese dog with terminal gas fills the viewing area with a wretched stink.

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  125. Husky puppy's fine now, thank you very much.

    And it's not my dog.


    My two dogs are smallish and perfectly adorable and never do anything offensive.

    Well. One of them has demonstrated a fondness for rolling in decaying things. And that caused quite the commotion at Deep Creek a few years ago. And on a kayak trip.

    But she's been staying here with my parents for the past year and a half and we've forgotten ALL about such unpleasantness.

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  126. The support rate for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's cabinet has dropped, and the majority of those surveyed believed Ichiro Ozawa should resign as the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)'s secretary-general, two major Japanese newspapers reported on Monday.

    ...

    Ozawa, seen by many as Japan's most influential politician, is credited with engineering last year's election victory which ended half a century of conservative dominance.

    The Yomiuri poll showed that the decision by Hatoyama to allow Ozawa to continue as secretary-general was not a popular one among DPJ supporters, with 51 percent saying it was an inappropriate decision, whilst 37 percent said they agreed with it.


    Urged to Resign

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  127. Lynch Mobs Turn on Looters

    Mormon Church people generally keep a year's supply of food and water stored away. At least they used to.

    Seemed like an odd habit when I was growing up, but see the good sense in it now.

    If the earthquake had been in the Dominican Republic I wonder if the reaction would have been much different. Or, here.

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  128. 21. Mass Patriot:


    Held out signs today and yesterday (sat, sun) in a town here in Northeastern MA…The response was so over the top…I am a veteran of electoral efforts here in blue state hell, and It was surreal…horns, thumbs up, yelling out car windows….the group of us unorganized neighborhood conservatives just went down and help up signs…and we were rock stars, and the word is that it is happening all over the state…it was so moving..hundreds of horns…overwhelmingly positive…a few middle fingers and a few thumbs down…but honestly….30 to 1 easily….we are about to bring you the “Scott heard round the world”…..Rabidly Republican in MASS

    it’s exciting and we are all working hard to win! Go Scott Brown

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  129. The inverted World of Paul Krugman:

    "So will this actually make political waves? If Brown were a Democrat, it would instantly be a huge scandal. The outrage machine would be working overtime. And the news media would, of course, pick it up.

    But Democrats don’t have the same kind of outrage infrastructure. Can they nevertheless find a way to use this? I guess we’ll soon find out."

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  130. Shit hitting the fan in Kabul.

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  131. It is sickening.

    Luxury liners still docking at private beaches near Haiti's devastated earthquake zone...

    To Have and Have Not

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  132. bob said...
    It is sickening.

    Luxury liners still docking at private beaches near Haiti's devastated earthquake zone...



    At 1st glance I thought the same...

    But then I read, how they did donate all profits from the port call to relief, how the company had invested 55 MILLION in developing this port that now provides 235 full time, well paying jobs...

    There are ocean liners moving all over the globe and in that area as we speak...

    There are people taking vacations in the Dominican Republic as we speak...

    Should everything stop because New Orleans was wiped out? Or Gulf Port MS?

    Maybe the headline was just a tad bit leading....

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