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2006/6/8-10 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:43317 Activity:low |
6/8 Al-Zarqawi killed in U.S. airstrike north of Baquba along with 5-7 associates, including a women and child. Identity confirmed through fingerprints, face, and known scars. Al-Maliki says intelligence was provided by local residents. U.S. says someone within his network gave him up. \_ in later news Pelosi and Kennedy plan ceremony to honor 'slain hero of the resistance'. \_ Long ass article on the history of Zarqawi in Atlantic Monthly: http://tinyurl.com/mnll7 \_ Yes! One down, and a few more hundred thousand Muslim followers and extremists to go... \_ I think he's probably worth a bit more than your average bomb- throwing maniac. -John \_ June 9th 2006 is officially a Victory Day! After many years of fighting, we won the war on terror! The tide has finally turned and major combat operations ends. God Bless! \_ In other news jblack and his friends are drinking beer and blasting country music to celebrate this news. \_ I'm a confirmed leftie and critic of the war, but even I'm happy about this. The guy was a terrorist and murderer. Way to go, US intel! --erikred \_ Comrade, you must quickly be taken to the re-education camp! \_ Wow cool all violence in the Middle East will now stop since their great leader is dead. \_ Who said that? No one said that. \_ It's a fitting that he should be blown up with no warning. \_ Except the warning of all the other times we tried to blow him up. \_ Well he knew we were out to get him, but there was none of this business of having a trial and indefinite pretrial detention. Just: BOOM! Game Over. \_ Were there also troops on the ground in case he survived the strike? \_ Iraqi forces got there first, followed by U.S. \_ URL? \_ the http://cnn.com main story, it says, "Iraqi forces were the first on the scene", other articles explicitly say U.S. arrived soon after \_ Thanks. I don't usually read http://CNN.com. None of the wire stories I read mentioned this information. \_ And now for "Attack of the Clones!" \_ And now for "Attack of the Clones!" \_ And now for "Attack of the Clones!" \_ And now for "Attack of the Clones!" \_ And now for "Attack of the Clones!" \_ And now for "Attack of the Clones!" \_ And now for "Attack of the Clones!" \_ WHEN CLONES ATTACK! \_ Yay! Pictures of the corpse! Go go culture of life! I'm not saying a necessary thing wasn't done, but the right should admit that this "culture of life" B.S. is pure hypocracy. "culture of life" B.S. is pure hypocrisy. \_ rove, I mean, dubya would tell you he defends those who cannot defend themselves \_ and without pictures the conspiracy nutters would say it was a lie. damned if you do, damned if you don't. whatever. \_ Emmanuel Goldstein is dead! Long live Emmanuel Goldstein! |
2006/6/8-9 [Uncategorized] UID:43318 Activity:nil |
6/7 http://www.insultthepresident.com |
2006/6/8 [Reference/Military] UID:43319 Activity:nil |
6/8 Air Force Hero To Defend Accused Marines http://csua.org/u/g46 |
2006/6/8-10 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:43320 Activity:nil |
6/8 Remaining three critical ministry posts confirmed by Iraqi parliament. Two Shiites for interior and national security, a Sunni (who had been ground forces commander (for defense minister). The nominations had been put forward immediately after the announcement of al-Zarqawi's death. \_ quagmire. \_ Yes, Iraq is just like Vietnam. Except for the political, environmental, religious, geo-political, military, civilian, economic differences. Yep, just like it. Comrade, The Peoples shall one day crush the Western Imperialist Yankee Pigdogs and They shall take what is theirs! Disney and Mcdonald's for all! |
2006/6/8-13 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:43321 Activity:nil |
6/8 Dear Prius owners. Has your car changed your life and if so, how? \_ Pious \_ I drive twice as far now because I don't feel guilty for polluting the environment (and also I can drive on the carpool lane so that cuts my time to travel) \_ For a while, I couldn't figure out why people behind the wheel of a Prius drive like assholes, and then I read a San Jose Mercury article on the subject. The Prius displays real time gas mileage stats, and the most efficient speed is pretty much always 10 to 20 mph slower than traffic. If you get a Prius, please keep your eyes on the road and not on the fscking fuel economy stats. -dans \_ i think only a small % of people is doing that. i am driving as usual (avg. 75 mph ) and am still getting ~47 miles/gallon \_ Agreed. I drive it like any other cars. I go with the flow of the traffic and I also get 47-48 mpg. Assholes will be assholes, regardless of what they drive. \_ Admittedly, it's anecdotal evidence, but I've corroborated this with others. For the record, I have no problem with folks who drive like you do. It's specifically people who adjust their speed to get the *optimum* mileage as specified by the Prius' display. -dans \_ What is wrong with going slow, as long as you do it in the slow lane? \_ You will get a ticket for it. \_ Not if you are going 50+. Are these people going under 50? \_ The first problem is that some people do this in the passing lane. The second problem is that some people do this in ohter lanes, but are going well below the speed of surrounding traffic. -dans \_ Because if you're going slower than traffic you're a hazard no different than an aggressive speeder. \_ that's what speeders would like you to think. That's like Cheney's friend being a hazard because Cheney shot him in the face. \_ Actually no, it isn't like that at all. |
2006/6/8-11 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:43322 Activity:nil |
6/8 Two Toyota dealers are selling the Prius at MSRP, and one marked it up by $1200. Another one refuses to give me a price unless I show up at their dealership. Has anyone actually gotten a Prius for lower than MSRP, and if so, where did you go? \_ Geez, is the Prius really worth obsessing over the MSRP? For the price I'd imagine you can get a (cheap) BMW and probably some hot chicks as well. You can either drive lonely by yourself in your small environmentally friendly car, or banging some hot chicks in the other car. ;) \_I am not sure about BMW, for the price of Prius you can get a nice new mid-sized sedan with a lot more powerful but still fairly fuel efficient 4-cylinder engine and have some change left. \_ You probably already know this, but word on the green car forums as of a month ago was that people only got MSRP or MSRP + $500 or more, and never below MSRP. Consensus among friends is that you need to go to a Toyota dealer with large inventory, which in SoCal would be Longo Toyota in El Monte. Please let me know if you find the equivalent in NoCal. |
2006/6/8-13 [Politics/Domestic/California, Reference/Tax] UID:43323 Activity:nil |
6/8 GOP loses bid in Senate to eliminate inheritance tax. Two GOPers (Voinovich/Ohio, Chafee/RI) voted against, four Dems voted for. BTW, the credit which covers $1 million for gifts and $2 million for inheritance is per-person. So your parents can gift out $2 mill to the kids and $4 mill out of the estate, for $6 mill total, or $24,000/year to each kid without counting against the gift and an unlimited amount for tuition, medical expenses, PACs, and charities \_ That's fine and all except it does nothing for the people who got there by working hard instead of riding their IPO stock up. The inheritance tax kills family owned businesses. When the parents die the kids can't keep the business running because they have to pay taxes on the value of the business which is a non-liquid asset, so they have to sell to pay up. It isn't that hard for a family run business that's been around for decades to be worth that or more on paper but have near zero cash. \_ The "family owned business" is the distraction. There are relatively few legitimate hard-luck cases like this compared to the amount of wealth turning over to relatives. And haven't you ever heard of a "loan"? You can use that to pay taxes and pay it back over time. I bet the interest is even deductible as a business expense. Second, the parents, if they're not stupid, can put the business in a trust and shield it from inheritance tax. The real deal here is that the Bush administration and their republican cronies are skewing things in favor of the wealthy, setting up hereditary aristocracies. --PeterM \_ And what is wrong with that? Are you jealous? \_ A distraction? Small businesses employ what percentage of the American population? Off the top of my head, it's something like 40%. Please correct that if you have a better number but it is not a trivial number. And no, trusts don't work like that. If they did then everyone would do it and we wouldn't be having a discussion about it. And I don't even know what to say about the idea of dinging the kids with having to get a loan to pay taxes on the transfer of the family business. Why exactly should some bank make big bucks on the parent's deaths? I'm left speechless. The truly wealthy don't pay these taxes because their money is off shore. You think the Kennedys or the Bushs pay these taxes? Fat chance. The truly wealthy don't follow the same laws the rest of us do. \_ If the concern is really for the small business owner, the proper response is to raise the threshhold, not to eliminate the tax. The fact that proposals to raise the threshhold are shot down by Republicans exposes their true motives. -tom \_ The threshhold has been raised many times over the years. What are you talking about? \_ "[I]nstead of seeking a compromise that might win over a handful of crucial Democrats, [Frist] is pushing for a permanent repeal of the estate tax. Though Republican aides say Mr. Frist has not closed off the possibility of a compromise, the senator has pointedly refused to schedule any floor time for debate about alternatives in the event that his own effort fails." Oh, and by the way, the estate tax affects less than 2% of estates even at today's levels. -tom \_ And? Mr. Frist is not "Republicans" and as I said, the number has increased several fold over the years. Why should he compromise anyway? Better to kill a bad law entirely than make yet another confusing tax mess full of loop holes for the rich. As Diane Feinstein said, "Death should not be a taxable event". \_ Yeah, that's brilliant, to get rid of loopholes for the rich, let's just stop taxing them entirely! My point is that the Republicans are trying to protect the extremely wealthy, not the hard-working small business owner. Thank you for making my point. -tom \_ My point is that the Republicans are NOT trying to protect the wealthy, but to assist their friends and family members. Thank you for making my point you fucking idiot \_ "A study by the CBO shows that in 2000 only 1659 farms and 458 small business were liable for the estate tax, almost all of which had sufficient liquid assets to pay it. The rest can stretch their tax payments over many years." -The Economist 6/10/2006. I am curious, since you think the extremely wealthy should not have to pay tax, who would you tax in their place? -ausman \_ There is no reason for tax if everyone is self reliant. The reason we have tax today is because negros don't work hard and we have to pay for their social security and welfare. Forget tax and forget social progrems, let the beast starve. -conservative \_ If this is a troll, it's in poor taste. If it isn't then, uhm, wow. \_ If you made it to Cal you're most likely smart enough to not preach hardcore self-reliance, racist and conservative messages, so this must be a troll. \_ Well, yes, that's probably right...but my time on motd has made me realize that I can't take that as a given. |
2006/6/8-13 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid, Transportation/Motorcycle] UID:43324 Activity:nil |
6/8 I want to sell my 2003 Kawasaki EX500 (500R). It has 9800 miles on it and I take very good care of it but it has been dropped on the right side at 30MPH, so there are scratches present. Everything is original stock OEM parts except the new racing Z-rated tires that are rated at +150MPH, which is obviously more than my EX500 can handle. Where is a good place to post an ad for this bike, and how much can I get it for? Thanks. \_ Why are you selling it? \_ I don't need it anymore. I've had a lot of fun but it's just not practical to keep. It doesn't have much reliability and and it costs too much to maintain. I've already got stranded on the highway THREE times because of mechanical problems, once due to the side kick stand fell off and the safety switch disabled the engine because it thought the kick stand was in the down position. The second time was due to switching from regular tank to reserve 10 seconds within the engine sputter, but it wouldn't start at all for 30 min. The third time was from a completely dead and leaky OEM battery that was only 48 months old (it had a 12 month warranty), and I was stranded in the middle of nowhere. Then there's the cost of maintenance. I don't want to pay $250 per set of tire every 8K miles, and $80 for a new seal-lead acid motorcycle battery every 48 months. In contrast my 60K car tires give me 45K for only $400, and my 60-month rated car battery in fact does gives me 60 months for 1/2 of the cost. The bottom line is motorcycles are fun, but they are not reliable, nor do they make much economical sense. I'm sad to give it up, but motorcycles just don't fit in my lifestyle anymore. \_ You should replace your motorcycle battery more often than once every 48 months. No wonder it "left you stranded," you did not maintain it properly. The total cost of ownership of a motorcycle is much much less than a car, which you would realize if you added in insurance and depreciation costs. \_ Unless you have 60-year old Italian racing bikes. -John \_ Aren't they comparable to 60-year old Italian racing cars? |
2006/6/8-13 [Recreation/Sports] UID:43325 Activity:nil |
6/8 What's a good bar in San Francisco to watch the World Cup tomorrow night and hit on hot Irish chicks? \_ SF Gate had an article about that yesterday. http://tinyurl.com/lov2g \_ International House (more french actually) \_ I thought the games are in the morning. |
2006/6/8-13 [Health/Women] UID:43326 Activity:nil |
6/8 Christopher Hitchens article in Vanity Fair on the history of the blowjob: http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060607fege05 \_ This is awesome. Thanks. JAA BABY. -John \_ Like most of Hitchens, it starts out interesting and then flounders into Hitchens' own bizarre drunken prejudices (here against women and homosexuals, with a healthy dose of hatred toward the French and the Third World). Imagine what he might have been able to do if he'd just avoided hitting the sauce. |
2006/6/8-9 [Uncategorized] UID:43327 Activity:nil |
6/8 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13167385 How to love fat and fabulous women. |
2006/6/8-13 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:43328 Activity:nil |
6/8 http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/06/08/haditha Sidney Blumenthal says Dubya's father "waged a secret campaign over several months early this year to remove Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ... personally asking a retired four-star general if he would accept the position ... The elder Bush's intervention was an extraordinary attempt to rescue simultaneously his son, the family legacy and the country." \_ Although I agree that something more than a no-fly-zone was necessary to protect our former allies the Kurds, Invasion: Baghdad was just as bad an idea in '91 as it was this time. Remember, the same cast of bad apples in Bush2: Cabinet Boogaloo are the ones that got overruled at the end of Gulf War I. This is their revenge, their chance at vindication, and it's turned out to be an utter mess... just as cooler heads predicted at the end of GWI. As for Carter, are you freaking high? Carter inherited a bad situation and turned it around so that when Ronnie came into office in January '81, he could fuck it up for a while before anyone realized he'd screwed it up. Bush2 inherited a budget surplus and undenied military supremacy and parlayed that into gazillion dollar deficits and the belief that anyone with a guerilla army can beat the US military. \_ And we care because Dad did such a great job as President? \_ He did a spectacular job, in kicking Saddam out of Kuwait, having a global consensus, and having everyone else finance it. -Dem \_ And didn't finish the job. And while we're here what are his other claims to fame that make him someone worth listening to? Of the President's I'm old enough to remember, only Carter was a worse President than Dad. \_ The "job" was to kick Saddam out of Kuwait. \_ The "job" was to kick Saddam out of Kuwait and to minimize him as a threat to his neighbors. Invading Iraq had a 0% probability of occurring at the time, nevermind the obvious problems of occupying the country and keeping the Sunnis and Shiites from killing each other. I say again, regarding the Gulf War, Bush's father did a spectacular job. \_ So kicking Saddam out of Kuwait accomplished what exactly? Why did we care about Kuwait? The only people hurt by the fall of the Kuwaitis are the ruling family and even then they just would have lived in exile with their billions of dollars. We restored hereditary oil rich family to power. Oh yay. Success. We also told the Kurds and southern Shiites we'd support their uprising and then watched them get slaughtered. That was good for US credibility. Oh yes, it was a truly spectacular job. \_ Although I agree that something more than a no-fly-zone was necessary to protect our former allies the Kurds, Invasion: Baghdad was just as bad an idea in '91 as it was this time. Remember, the same cast of bad apples in Bush2: Cabinet Boogaloo are the ones that got overruled at the end of Gulf War I. This is their revenge, their chance at vindication, and it's turned out to be an utter mess... just as cooler heads predicted at the end of GWI. As for Carter, are you freaking high? Carter inherited a bad situation and turned it around so that when Ronnie came \_ We've been through this. Perhaps you've heard of double digit inflation? The Misery index? The infamous Malaise Speech? Four hundred and how many days of The Hostage Crisis on TV every friggin night? Carter showed the world that the US could be brought to her knees by a bunch of untrained thugs with bad attitudes. Oh yeah but wait, we tied yellow ribbons around everything in support and memory of the hostages. Carter: best President in modern times! Woot! The only thing he did was provide Dad a way of not being the worst President in the last few decades. GHB couldn't even win a "worst of" contest. into office in January '81, he could fuck it up for a while before anyone realized he'd screwed it up. Bush2 \_ By that logic, Clinton fucked the economy and we didn't see the effects until a while into Junior's term. I doubt you believe that. That knife cuts both ways. inherited a budget surplus and undenied military supremacy and parlayed that into gazillion dollar deficits and the belief that anyone with a guerilla army can beat the US military. \_ Hahaha. |
2006/6/8-10 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:43329 Activity:nil |
6/8 Heil German John! http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060608/od_nm/germany_biting_dc_1 \_ Heh, thanks for the joint effort. However, last month I found out he's not a real German so I stopped posting German links. Thanks for the continued efforts anyways. -the other GJ guy \_ *snif* I'm moved. And other GJ guy, can't you come up with something? I miss you. ChiCom troll's disciples have been sort of sub-par recently. -John \_ Sorry for your dwindling fan club membership but as a former member, I quit. I was very disappointed that you're not a real German. You see, I only troll Ayrans, people who have true Germanic blood. You're impure and not worth trolling for. I guess if the Swiss were funny I'd continue my trolls except they're not. They're notoriously boring and very difficult to make fun of. Good luck with your fake-German fan club. -the other GJ guy \_ I'm pretty aryan, please love me. -John |
2006/6/8-10 [Recreation/Dating] UID:43330 Activity:low |
6/8 I'm sorry for the silly question but when people have sex in real life, do they usually do everything like in porn? Usually porn starts with oral and finger, following by some of all of the followings: doggy, cowboy, missionary. Fetish porns also have anal, tit sex, LARPing, and other things that I personally find disgusting. I hope that I never have to perform these things when the time comes. Lastly, is pulling out an implicitly agreed upon convention? I never learned these in sex education so any advice would be helpful. Thanks! \_ Awesome troll. +5 for originality. \_ It's all done like in 1980s German porn. You need to grow a droopy mustache, and slap her rump while maintaining a pained expression and saying things like JAA BABY, OH JAA. Bonus points if she has a feathered blond hairdo and chews gum. -John \_ The most important thing to remember is to always tip the midgets. \_ Oh, I'll be "tipping the midgets", don't worry about that. \_ You do whatever floats your boat. What is LARPing? And I haven't been pulling out. It's not that great as a method of birth control. \_ Someone replaced anal with LARPing. I know pulling out is not effective, but what do you use instead? Most of the Japanese porns use the condom but none in American porns. Why is that? \_ ob Cal dude and prostitute in dorm video \_ urlP \_ #t |
2006/6/8-12 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:43331 Activity:kinda low |
6/8 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13202682 Indigenous Hawaiian bill falls short in Senate. You whities may have won this time, but we will keep trying. Time is on our side. \_ Just curious, are there examples in history where a dominant race uses military mights to crush all the inferior natives, and the natives worship the dominant culture instead of hating them? For some reason, it seems that the conquered people seem to have a lot of resentments despite all the material goods and better infrastructural improvements brought by the conquerers. \_ Worship? Not per se but the Roman Empire was built by "Romanising" the natives they conquered. After a few generations, the original culture, traditions, etc, was often lost and certainly secondary to their new Roman culture. I can't recall his name this second but one of the "barbarian" generals who attacked the Romans was really just pissed off that he wasn't allowed to climb any higher in the Roman army because he wasn't considered native Roman even though that's all he ever knew. Rome capitulated and forked over a lot more gold and land than if they'd just promoted him in the army. \_ Alexander the Great did this, too. Heck, even the Russian peasants were cheering the Nazis until the SS showed up. \- I am guessing you are talking about Arminius of the Cherusci, responsible for the famous Roman defeat in the Teutoburger Wald, also known as the "Clades Variana". On your larger point, I dont think you really know what you are talking about -- it is pretty hard to generalize about the early Roman conquests [unification of Italy], Rome and the Hellenic World and forward several centuries to the imperial policy of the later Roman Empire. A famous line from Horace goes "Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit" [Captive Greece took captive her capturer] which gives a hint about the complicated "feedback loop" between Rome and one of her subjugated powers. --publius \_ I was speaking about later Roman conquests of Gaul and the surrounding regions as far as Romanisation goes. The reason Greek culture overwhelemed Roman is that the Romans didn't have much of one to speak of at the time. As an early state with limited culture first making their way into the world, they didn't have that much to spread to their subjects so I'd have to be talking about the later imperial era. \_ How did "Greek culture overwhelm Roman" You may want to read Plutarch on Cato, at first cut. It's hard to know what you mean since the events you are talking about can refer to anywhere from the 3rd cent BC to say the 2nd cent AD. [like when you say "Roman Empire" do you mean the Roman Empire or the empire of the Roman Republic. \_ It means that the Romans stole much of their culture from the Greeks, even going so far as to be educated by them. \_ i dont know what you actually know about the relationship between rome and the hellenic and hellenistic worlds, but based on your phrasings, i dont think you give rome their due. the relationship between greece and rome is one of the BIG QUESTIONS in roman scholarship in part because it is so complicated. one of the most influential scholars in this area is a recently retired ucb history prof. [http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/classics/facCVs/esg.html] from the preface to one of his books: "rome yielded to the allure of of greek culture, while retaining a provound sense of closeness to while retaining a profound sense of closeness to her roots ... confrontation with hellenism stimulated roman intellectuals to formulate the principles they associated with their past ... prompted the drive to deliniate the special quality of rome's own values ... romans rec'd high praise for their adaptability, their openness and responsiveness to foreign influence ... [but] assiminlation and resistance went hand in hand. [3rd, 2nd cent bc ...] the romans were by no means boorish rustics, awestruck and intimiated by hellenism, gripped by an inferiority complex... the success of gk culture in rome came in part because it could server certain public purposes. because it could serve certain public purposes. they engaged in adaptation, modification, man- ipulation." in particular see essay "philosophy, rhetoric, and roman axieties." rhetoric, and roman anxieties." \_ This guy just sounds like an apologist: "the success of gk culture in rome came in part because it could serve certain public purposes." Yeah, very small part. \_ gee, "this guy" is a former president of American Philological Assn, and you are make sweeping meaningless generalizations (like not distinguishing between Romanization in Egypt, Greece, Judea vs. Western Europe. where you talk about "i'd have to be talking about the later imperial era" simply doesnt make any sense ... what year do yoou mean?) make any sense ... what year do you mean?) and cant remember the details of the one specific example you attempt to give. So forgive me for not taking your comments seriously. Now how about you tell us what you think caused the "fall of the roman empire" and tell us what you think about R. Syme's "The Roman Revolution". about the later imperial era" ... what year do you mean?) and cant remember the details of the one specific example you attempt to give. So forgive me for not taking your comments seriously. Now how about you tell us what you think caused the "fall of the roman empire" and tell us what you think about R. Syme's "The Roman Revolution". \_ why USA is critizing China on Tibet again? \_ A better question is when does conquered land regain sovereignty? Or does it? Got those crazy MENCha peeps trying to get back the Western US (including one Mayor of L.A.) Why can't they play nice like the people in the Kurile Islands? \_ Why don't we just give them the LA mayor if they really want him so badly? -John \_ Or send him off to be Tibet's Mayor. They can follow him there. It'll be utopia. We'll all want in. \_ Because we're trying to spare them the turmoil and angst that we have suffered since annexing Hawaii. Don't make the same mistakes we have, PRC! You don't want an Autonomous Region of hop heads and meth fiends! |
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