Just when you thought it was safe to eat at Taco Hell again…

@Young:

Been wanting to change his name for some time now, and I finally came up with one that feels right for him…

“PANZER”

You have my blessings! Panzer is awesome!

Today, the 6th of August, in 1284 the little known naval battle of Meloria was fought between the  powerful city states  of Genoa and Pisa. It was a Genoese victory, which marked the end of Pisa as a power in the region and would see it absorbed in 1406 by the flourishing banking and textile rich city of Florence. A position as leading Tuscan city which she would hold for hundreds of years, under the clever and super rich Medici family.

One of the losing Pisan Admirals, Count  Ugolini, can be found in the Florentine poet Dante’s Inferno.
He is in the Ninth Circle with Satan punished for treason, found forever gnawing on the Archbishop Ruggieri who betrayed, imprisoned and starved him and his family.

Since the rule has been made noone has flipped the table… Yet.

It was flipped once after turn 3 of are second game of global.

I was Italy and taking over a poorly played Japan from a friend who had to go. The Allies were going really hard on the Pacific and after my turn 3 which was extremely good especially with dice rolls. They took there turns and flipped the table as they saw the writing on the wall. That is why the rule was in place.

I really wanted to walk out on this stupid ass movie, but I stayed till the end.  Dumbest movie since “Swing Kids”.

Did you know the Nazis didn’t like dancing?  They also hated Rainbows and kittens as well.

Ya know, it’s not fair.  The Holocaust gets all the publicity and no one ever remembers the poor swing kids who were not allowed to dance.  It is like the the “flash dance” of the 30s and 40s.

@cystic:

"she’s Married?!?!  Did i just s**t myself?!?!

Speaking of Custer
Didja’ hear the one about:

a wealthy history buff commissions a painting
“i want Custer’s last thoughts on the canvas.  Paint it just like you were there, reading Custer’s mind”

Several weeks later, the painting is brought before the buyer.  He is shocked to see a number of naked native people in various very sexual poses.  In the middle is a large fish with a halo over its’ head.
“what the hell is this?” the history buff asked?
“well, it’s like you asked - you wanted Custer’s last thoughts!  I imagined it was something like:
holy mackeral - where did all of these f**king indians come from?”

LOL

Love it CC!

This news sotry shows just how close the United States is to becoming just like Germany of the 1930’s.

We have always been a nation of the rule of law, and have prided ourselves on our Constitution to the point where we expected EVERYONE else to accept, adopt, and follow it.

Not anymore.  Now, 42% of Americans think that the Constitution is irrelevant and should be discarded in order to keep them “safe” from outside agression.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060108/ap_on_go_pr_wh/eavesdropping_ap_poll

WASHINGTON - A majority of Americans want the Bush administration to get court approval before eavesdropping on people inside the United States, even if those calls might involve suspected terrorists, an AP-Ipsos poll shows.

Over the past three weeks,
President Bush and top aides have defended the electronic monitoring program they secretly launched shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, as a vital tool to protect the nation from al-Qaida and its affiliates.

Yet 56 percent of respondents in an AP-Ipsos poll said the government should be required to first get a court warrant to eavesdrop on the overseas calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens when those communications are believed to be tied to terrorism.

Agreeing with the White House, some 42 percent of those surveyed do not believe the court approval is necessary.

“We’re at war,” Bush said during a New Year’s Day visit to San Antonio. “And as commander in chief, I’ve got to use the resources at my disposal, within the law, to protect the American people. … It’s a vital, necessary program.”

According to the poll, age matters in how people view the monitoring. Nearly two-thirds of those between age 18 to 29 believe warrants should be required, while people 65 and older are evenly divided.

Party affiliation is a factor, too. Almost three-fourths of Democrats and one-third of Republicans want to require court warrants.

Cynthia Ice-Bones, 32, a Republican from Sacramento, Calif., said knowing about the program made her feel a bit safer. “I think our security is so important that we don’t need warrants. If you’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing, then you ought to be caught,” she said.

But Peter Ahr of Caldwell, N.J., a religious studies professor at Seton Hall University, said he could not find a justification for skipping judicial approvals. Nor did he believe the administration’s argument that such a step would impair terrorism investigations.

“We’re a nation of laws. … That means that everybody has to live by the law, including the administration,” said Ahr, 64, a Democrat who argues for checks and balances. “For the administration to simply go after wiretaps on their own without anyone else’s say-so is a violation of that principle.”

The eavesdropping is run by the secretive National Security Agency, the government’s code-makers and code-breakers.

Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said most people think that the eavesdropping is aimed at foreign terrorists, even when the surveillance is conducted inside the country.

“They are willing to give the president quite a lot of leeway on this when it comes to the war on terror,” said Franklin, who closely follows public opinion.

Some members of Congress have raised concerns about the president’s actions, but none of those lawmakers who have been briefed on the program has called for its immediate halt.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, GOP Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, has promised hearings this year. Five members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, including GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, have called for immediate inquiries.

On top of that, a memorandum circulated Friday from two legal analysts at the Congressional Research Service concluded that the justification for the monitoring may not be as strong as the administration has argued.

The NSA’s activity “may present an exercise of presidential power at its lowest ebb,” the 44-page memo said.

Bush based his eavesdropping orders on his presidential powers under the Constitution and a September 2001 congressional resolution authorizing him to use military force in the fight against terrorism.

The administration says the program is reviewed every 45 days and that Bush personally reauthorizes it. His top legal advisers argue its justification is sound.

The issue is full of grays for some people interviewed for the poll, including homebuilder Harlon Bennett, 21, a political independent from Wellston, Okla. He does not think the government should need warrants for suspected terrorists.

“Of course,” he added, “we all could be suspected terrorists.”

Any updates of what’s going on in Liberia? I know US troops are there and are facing a massive problem from rioting civilians.

The point is: Liberia is a country founded by you. It is what comes closest to an ex-colony.
Just as you accuse that the French go in when their ex-colonies have trouble, we want you to go in when your ex-colony has trouble.
You have responsibility for them (sure we could discuss the degree, but not the fact).

No, Liberia was a country founded by the American Colonization Society in 1816 by Robert Finley, not by the United States Government. The US government is not responsible for it (except if you mean providing the ACS with some government grants). It’s like saying, I went to start set up a small communist country in the Pacific, but since things didn’t turn out right, the US government has to bail me out. Also, Liberia was set up with good intentions - not exploitation. Were any of the French colonies in Africa like that?

@El:

Here’s a question…If below par is good why do most people mean bad or poorly when they say, “I’m feeling under/below par?”

Par simply means what the standard. If Par for the course is 72 then 72 strokes is the standard # of strokes needed to finnish the course. If you shoot under par you are doing well.

On the contrary if you are feeling under par, you are feeling worse than standard or normal, thus bad. :)