What it was that made James Holmes go nuts.

@Flashman:

Looks like I’ll be a year short of getting a pension.

But the odds are that civilization will be destroyed by some religious fruitcake long before then.   :evil:

Religious Fruitcakes are the leading cause of death in world history.

@Jermofoot:

@Gargantua:

Call it Progress.

Call it Change.

Call it Reform.

Call it War.

Like rolling the dice in Axis and Allies, anything can happen and there are no garuntees; But if you don’t like the gameboard and you want to improve your control of “progress/change/reform/victory” for your side, you have to move your pieces in play to “take the chance” on better results.

What Peters is saying is that the Bush administration set the pieces in order to contribute to a possible “roll of the dice” in Egypt; and that some credit is deserved for this.

Anyways - want to know who I think deserves Credit? And like Deanin his time, I was lamblasted for saying had a “level of grace” about this process?

Mubarak.

Unlike Assad, or Ghaddafi, Mubarak saw the writing on the wall, knew what was at stake and basically resigned without a shot fired - all the while knowing he would likely face criminal proceedings. �You have to have some respect for that.

Call it dumb.

Some change.  Where is Egypt now?  In complete turmoil right now.  What an improvement.

@Gargantua:

What was wrong with the Iraq war again?

Sorry, I tuned out to the news on it for about 5 years… far away up here in Canada you know.

IMO, at the time, there was no significant justification for it.  It seemed pretty clear to me the motivation for it was not what was being sold to the American public, who ate it up anyway post WW2.  And the conflict of interest, cronyism and outright corruption involved in bidding contracts, infrastructure, supply, etc. just about makes me sick.  And hardly anyone even cared.  The public was duped and we are paying for our bamboozle.

Like politics, Sausage is ugly when made.

I wonder what the “world” said about the American Civil war during the 1860’s.  “It’s in complete turmoil right now”.

The “turmoil” in Egpyt is a piddlance in comparison to the turmoil in Syria… or what we saw in Libya.  Considering the players, the location, and the stakes, it is a fairly well moderated shift.  There aren’t 1000’s of people dying in the streets.

The “shift to what” is the question we should be asking.

I’m with you GG. Etta was terrific.

Yeah, my parents threw away a lot of my cool stuff too that I left in the garage.

Exactly, Dezrt.  But you only NEED it in times of drafts because you can just not volunteer.  So yes, Jermo, you can just decalre yourself a Conscientious Objector and not have to join any clubs to do it.  Just tell them before you sign the contract and they’ll rip it right up and send you on your merry way.  End of story.  No one is forced to kill another human being in this country.  However, there are times it is recommended (ie stopping your wife from being raped and your children dismembered before your eyes, being some of the cases.)

And I’d like to see proof that rape and the rest of your tirade was ever commanded by God to his armies.  Just Book, Chapter and Verse will be fine, thank you. See new thread -df-

@Janus1:

… stupidity is unreasoned thinking.  …

You should look up the latest results of neuro-biologists. It seems like all reasoning we do (for all decisions) happens after the decision has been made (without you “knowing” that it has been made). That would mean, either all thinking is “reasoned, but unconscious”, or all thinking is “unreasoned because unconcious”.

yawn.

@dabaron:

The term “Palestine” was invented by the Romans as a means to dishonor the Jews, because they hated them. They wanted to file the Jews and the Arabs together in a land called “Palestine” instead of Israel. So really, the “Palestinians” are just Jordanian Arabs that have lived in the region since the great dispersion and, in my opinion, have no rightful claim to the land whatsoever. Now let’s get back to the topic, unusual stuff.

You’re quite right, dabaron. “Palestine” was what Emperor Hadrian named Judea (omdern day Israel) after the second revlot against Rome in 135 CE. It came from the extinct nation of the Philistines. Hadrian hoepd that by naming Judea and all its cities after extinct nations, he could eventually make the Jews extinct. He failed.